IUCN SSC Ant Specialist Group

I am a biodiversity scientist, fascinated with understanding the global diversity of ants. As such my students and I conduct research involving revisionary taxonomy, building phylogenies, studies on the structure and function of morphological features, and fieldwork. This last point is especially noteworthy because I aim to link all my science to field studies where real, live individuals can be observed in a natural setting. My students and I frequently travel to locations around the world to conduct ant surveys. I employ a variety of techniques to the study of ant biodiversity ranging from morphology to phylogenomics. Much of my research has focused on two aspects of ant diversity: understanding the mutualistic relationships Acropyga ants have with mealybugs and revisionary taxonomic work within the subfamily Formicinae. That said, I have increasingly become interested in understanding the tempo and distribution of ant fossils around the world particularly from Cenozoic fossil locations and what they may tell us about modern patterns of ant diversity.