People
Professor of Biology
Ph.D. Harvard University.
Research Interests: Behavioral ecology, sociobiology, and neurobiology of insects.
Current lab members:
Cristina Harry ’25 – MS
B.S. in Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Research Interests: I’m studying the electrophysiological responses of ant gustatory receptors to different substances across subcastes in Atta cephalotes. I’m also interested in the neurobiology of climate change and its impact on behavior.
Jordan Smith ’21 – PhD
B.S. and M.A. in biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.
Research interests: I am interested in the intersection of taste and social behavior in ants, studying differences in taste preferences, gustatory receptors expression, and electrophysiological responses across the behaviorally and morphologically distinct subcastes of the leafcutter ant Atta cephalotes.
Zach Coto PhD (2016 – 2024)
B.S. in Biology, SUNY New Paltz.
Research Interests: I study how the development and evolution of brain energy investment relates to the evolution of social complexity using local sister species of Dolichoderus ants as a natural model system for this research.
Frank Azorsa PhD (2018 – 2025)
B.S. San Marcos University, Lima, Peru. M.A. San Francisco State University/California Academy of Sciences.
Research interests: To understand how dietary shifts shaped brain evolution, I study how changes in predatory ecology in ponerine ant species that differ in colony size and either hunt in groups or solitarily are related to brain size, compartmental scaling, and cellular structure.