Henry Ferguson-Gow

Curriculum Vitae:

• October 2010-Present: PhD student, University of East Anglia and Institue of Zoology. The Evolution of biodiversity in the ants.
• March 2009-April 2010: Curatorial assistant, Lepidoptera section, Natural History Museum, London.
• October 2008-March 2009: Data capture assistant, South African Butterfly Conservation Assessment.
• September 2003-May 2009: MBiolSci, University of Sheffield.
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Research Interests:

Ants are the most ubiquitous and ecological dominant eusocial organisms on Earth, are found in vast numbers on every continent except Antarctica and fill myriad ecological roles. They live in colonies ranging from small, simply organised social groups to highly complex societies with millions of workers. The understanding of the evolution of social complexity and diversity in the ants is the focus of my research. I am interested in how certain colony traits, for example worker diversity and queen-worker dimorphism, correlate with colony size and social complexity. I am also interested in the link between these traits and phylogenetic diversity.

I am supervised by Professor Andrew Bourke at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, and Dr. Kate Jones and Dr. Seirian Sumner at the Institute of Zoology. I am funded by NERC, with IoZ as a CASE partner.