Research Interests
Evolutionary biology, symbiosis
Research Statement
I am interested in the symbiotic factors that drive speciation, adaptation, and evolutionary diversification. By leveraging molecular methods, next-generation sequencing, and comparative genomics research in my lab focuses on ants and other insects to tease apart the factors that influence patterns of evolution _ from the rise of the flowering plants, symbioses with other insects and plants, and their gut-associated microbial community are all potential underlying factors that facilitated their ecological dominance in terrestrial ecosystems.