Thomas Bugnyar received his PhD in Biological Sciences from University of Vienna, Austria in 2001. He was subsequently awarded with an Erwin-Schrödinger fellowship for international mobility, allowing him to conduct his first own postdoctoral project at the University of Vermont, Burlington, USA, and an Erwin-Schrödinger follow-up program, enabling him to continue his research in Austria. After a year as lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Scotland/UK, he returned to Vienna for the prestigious START program awarded by the Austrian Science Fund, on behalf of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. He is now professor for Cognitive Ethology and part of the newly founded Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna. His research focuses on social behaviour and complex cognition in avian societies, particularly corvids, ranging from social information use, perspective taking and ‘theory of mind’ to cooperation and conflict management. He has published over 50 journal articles and book chapters and has been member of the editorial board of Animal Behaviour, the scientific committee of the Ethological Society and the EU-program ‘Atomium Culture’. He is also the speaker of University Vienna’s new FWF-funded PhD program ‘Cognition and Communication’.