Behavioural Ecology

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor of Evolutionary Ecology and Head of the new Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne

EDUCATION:
• 1983 BSc University of Lausanne, Major Biology
• 1985 MSc University of Lausanne, Major Biology
• 1989 PhD University of Lausanne, Major Zoology

HONORS AND AWARDS:
• 1989 Outstanding PhD student award, University of Lausanne
• 1990 Brunner Prize for the best PhD in the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lausanne
• 1992 START (Swiss Talents for Academic Research and Teaching) fellowship (by the Swiss NSF)
• 1993 Award for best talk during the Annual Conference of the Swiss Zoological Society, Satellite symposium
• 1998 Mouline Prize for an article published in Evolution (first author: Michel Chapuisat)
• 1999 AETAS (Foundation for research on ageing) Research Award
• 2000 Leenards Research Award
• 2000 National Latsis Prize 2000, awarded by the Swiss NSF
• 2000 Charles D Michener Lecture, University of Kansas
• 2005 Ernest Dubois Prize
• 2005 EO Wilson Naturalist Award
• 2006 Verwey lecture, Verwey meeting 2006
• 2009 Basic Life Science Senior Research Award, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Lausanne
• 2010 ERC Advanced Grant

SOCIETY POSITIONS:
• 1989-1990 Secretary, French Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects
• 1989-1995 Council member of the French Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects
• 1994-1997 President of the Swiss Zoological Society
• 1997-1999 Vice-President of the Zoological Society of Switzerland
• 1998-2004 Member of the Swiss Commission for Biology (Swiss Commission for Biology, Swiss Academy for Science)
• 1999-2003 Member of the Steering Committee of the 'National Forum on Biodiversity' (Swiss Commission for Biology, Swiss Academy for Science)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The goal of our group is to understand the principles governing the evolution of animal societies and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of social life. To study these questions we combine disciplines of animal behaviour, ecology, evolutionary genetics and genomics. Our current interests include:

• Ageing in social insects
• Experimental tests of kin selection
• Expermental robotics
• Genetic, ecological and molecular bases for variation in social systems
• Division of labour in insect societies
• Causes and consequences of genetic caste determination
• The fire ant genome
• Queen specialization in multiple-queen colonies of social insects