Anna Dornhaus

Anna Dornhaus' main interest is understanding the evolution of organization in groups. This includes how collective behaviors emerge from the actions and interactions of individuals, but also the ecological conditions that promote the evolution of particular collective strategies. She studies as model systems social insect colonies (bumble bees, honey bees and ants) in the laboratory and in the field and uses mathematical and individual-based modeling approaches. Recent work has included the role of communication in the allocation of foragers to food sources and the relevance of this for mutualistic interactions (e.g., in pollination or in ant-plant mutualisms); the evolution of different recruitment systems in different species of bees and how ecology shapes these recruitment systems; speed-accuracy trade offs in decision-making and learning and how they affect signal evolution; and whether different group sizes necessitate different organizational strategies.

Degrees

• 2002, PhD, Zoology, University of Würzburg