Dr. Daiping Wang

I study the behavioural ecology and genetics of mate choice using captive zebra finches as a model species. After I got my master degree at Beijing Normal University which focused on birds song in the field, I joined the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology for my PhD in 2014. I finished my PhD, entitled ‘mate choice and the evolution of female promiscuity in a socially monogamous species’, in 2018.

In 2019, I started my postdoc with Bart Kempenaers, Wolfgang Fostmeier and Damien Farine. The main project of my current research is to conduct large-scale mate choice experiments to identify the role of cultural transmission and genetic inheritance in explaining mate choice in zebra finches. I am based in the Kempenaers department, but collaborate with Damien’s lab to conduct colony-scale tracking of mate choice mechanisms. In addition, I have a broad interest in the genetic architecture of life history traits in avian species using genomic data; and conducting comparative studies under the framework of sexual selection theory.