The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support a twenty-two month research fellowship by Dr. Jeremy M. Bono to work with Dr. Bernard J. Crespi at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada.
The goal of this project is to use a combination of molecular techniques and field experiments to determine the roles of genetic and ecological factors promoting cooperative colony founding, which promotes social evolution, in Australian Acacia thrips. This project will provide an opportunity for the PI to learn new techniques and methodologies, including formal training in phylogenetics, that he will continually apply throughout his career. This research will make significant contributions to the field of evolutionary biology by providing insight into the genetic and ecological factors that promote the evolutin of cooperation. Systems with cooperative colony founding afford unique opportunities to study social evolution.
Dr. Crespi has extensive knowledge of Australian Acacia thrips and is a leading authority on the evoution of social behavior.
