Place & date of birth: Budapest, Hungary – April 19, 1970
Nationality: Hungarian
Education: biologist (1994)
Contact: peter.pongracz@ttk.elte.hu

Studies:
1989-1994 Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest – biologist
1994-2000 Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest – doctoral school (PhD)

Languages skills: English, Russian

Degree: PhD (2000); Habilitation (ELTE, 2015)

Professional experience and positions:
1999-2006                  assistant research fellow, Department of Ethology, ELTE
2006-2009                  assistant lecturer, Department of Ethology, ELTE
2009-2015                  senior lecturer, Department of Ethology, ELTE
2015-                          Associate professor, Department of Ethology, ELTE

Teaching experience – Own, independently developed courses:
Ethology of predatory behavior – since 1995
Social learning – since 2006
Ethology of the game species of Hungary – since 2006
Animal welfare – since 2007
Animal protection – since 2008
Domestication – evolution driven by the human – since 2013

Courses developed and run jointly with the team of Department of Ethology:
The evolution of communication
Applied ethology practice
Ethology (advanced level)
Ethology practice
Cognitive ethology
Evolution of the Canidae
Progress reports of the PhD students (doctoral school)
Ethology (doctoral school)

Domestic and foreign scholarships:
2002-04                      post-doctoral scholarship ‘Békésy György’
2006-08                      research grant ‘Bolyai János’
20010-13                    research grant 2^nd time ‘Bolyai János’

Professional awards and recognition: ‘Innovative researcher of the Eötvös Loránd University’ (2015)

5 most significant publications (within 5 years):
Pongrácz, P., Bánhegyi, P., Miklósi, Á. 2012. When rank counts—dominant dogs learn better from a human demonstrator in a two-action test. Behaviour, 149: 111–132.

Bálint, A., Faragó, T., Dóka, A., Miklósi, Á., Pongrácz, P. 2013. ‘Beware, I am big and non-dangerous!’–Playfully growling dogs are perceived larger than their actual size by their canine audience. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 148: 128-137.

Péter, A., Gergely, A., Topál, J., Miklósi, Á., Pongrácz, P. 2015. A Simple but powerful test of perseverative search in dogs and toddlers. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(5). 940-951. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2014.970206

Pongrácz, P., Czinege, N., Haynes, T. M. P., Tokumaru, R. S. T., Miklósi, Á., Faragó, T. 2016. The communicative relevance of auditory nuisance: Barks that are connected to negative inner states in dogs can predict annoyance level in humans. Interaction Studies 17:1, 19–40. doi 10.1075/is.17.1.02pon

Bálint, A., Faragó, T, Miklósi, Á, Pongrácz, P. 2016. Threat level dependent manipulation of signaled body size – dog growls’ indexical cues depend on the different levels of potential danger. Animal cognition, 1-17.  doi:10.1007/s10071-016-1019-9