I am interested in animal behaviour, especially in social animals. Currently I am doing my PhD, studying recognition in (Formica) ants. During my PhD I will investigate brood recognition in ants from different points of view. I am using a variety of behavioural assays to study both, adults recognizing brood, as well as brood recognizing other brood. As recognition in ants is based on chemical signatures, I will furthermore conduct chemical work on surface chemistry of brood items, which will give new insights in the type and quality of information available for the receivers. I will also investigate chemical receptor expression in larvae, which will shed light on the still completely unknown chemosensory biology of ant larvae. Besides doing research I am passionate about public outreach, which I think is a very important (and fun!) part of our work as scientists.

To read more about our research see: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/evolution-sociality-behaviour