Our Team

Timothy Linksvayer is an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences. He studies the genetic, developmental and behavioral underpinnings of social insect colonies to understand how these complex systems evolve and function

I am a behavioral ecologist who applies computational and comparative methods to understand the phenotypic evolution of collective behavior and emergent traits. During my postdoctoral training, I have been developing acorn ants (genera Temnothorax and Leptothorax) as a model clade to investigate the mechanisms, evolution, and functional significance of synchronized behavioral rhythms in animals.

Chao Tong is an Assistant Research Scientist in the lab. He is interested in using comparative genomics and phylogenomics to understand the evolution of social complexity. Chao earned his PhD in evolutionary genomics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China.

Hello, I'm Kendrick! My research interest is in evolutionary shifts to the balance of cooperation and conflict. By understanding how those shifts happen, we can use the exhaustive hand of evolution to develop biologically realistic models for similar transitions across the tree of life. However, as fitness is realized through the imperatives, constraints, and ability of the organism, a first-principles angle of attack requires understanding the dominating components for each. To that end, I am currently investigating the nuances of the thermal constraints ants face, and how that is reflected in their behavior.

Eusocial insect colonies, who exhibit (i) cooperative brood care, (ii) a reproductive division of labour), and (iii) overlapping generations of highly related individuals, have evolved spectacularly sophisticated and diverse morphologies and ways of living. I am interested in understanding how gut symbionts, socially transmitted material, and diet affect different aspects of eusocial phenotypes like caste and disease resistance. I have a strong background in integrating microbiology, epidemiology, and behavior in these social insect model systems to study these types of interactions.

I am interested in exploring the biology of eusocial insects. A major hallmark of eusocial insects is the existence of a reproductive division of labor where one or a subset of colony members are capable of reproduction (referred to as queens or gamergates) and the rest of the individuals are either obligately or functionally sterile (termed as workers). Furthermore, these distinct phenotypes within a colony usually arise from the same genome in response to environmental conditions. I am particularly fascinated by how these divergent phenotypes arise from a single genome and the proximate mechanisms contributing to these differential developmental trajectories. Moreover, I am intrigued by how eusociality has evolved multiple times, independently across the tree of life. I will integrate developmental genetic, comparative genomic, and phylogenetic approaches to address these overarching goals for my research.

Hi, I am Allina. My research interests center on the role of indirect genetic effects (IGEs) in shaping colony fitness and the dynamics of social evolution in ants. I am particularly intrigued by how IGEs contribute to complex interactions among individuals, influencing both their behavior and the collective outcomes for the colony. Additionally, I aim to investigate the process of multilevel selection, examining how IGE-related traits are selected at both the individual and group levels. Through this approach, I aim to understand how social behavior evolved by examining it from the perspectives of IGEs and multilevel selection.

I'm Joe! I'm currently focused on learning how various indirect genetic effects drive caste differentiation in eusocial insects, particularly ants. More generally, I am interested in the implications this has for understanding how phenotypic changes are regulated throughout development, and how phenotypic plasticity contributes to the evolution of eusociality. (edited)