The Kennedy College of Sciences Dean's Lecture Presents:

Empires in the Soil: The Hidden Biodiversity and Economics of Ant Societies with Christina Kwapich, Ph.D.

Christina Kwapich smiling and holding up a framed display of taxidermized butterflies.

Date: April 11, 2023
Time: 4-5 p.m.
Location: Hybrid in-person (Olsen Hall, Room 503, North Campus) & Livestream via Echo360

Register for Empires in the Soil: The Hidden Biodiversity and Economics of Ant Societies for in-person or virtual options.

This event is free and open to the public.

How do ant colonies divide labor without a leader? What characteristics explain the resilience of self-organized animal societies? Join Asst. Prof. Christina Kwapich as she reveals the parallel lives of ants, and the spectacular biodiversity hidden just beneath our feet.

About Christina Kwapich

Christina L. Kwapich, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UMass Lowell.

She is also co-author of the book, “The Guests of Ants: How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts” (2022, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press).

Her research focuses on the organization of labor in animal societies, parasites of ant colonies and the nest architecture of insects.

Christina Kwapich seated at a table holding up a copies of her book: Guests of Ants with a framed ant colony picture behind her and another unknown scultpture.

This event is sponsored by the Kennedy College of Sciences as part of the college’s “Spring into Science” annual event program.