Hello! I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Rehan lab at the University of New Hampshire.  I am broadly interested in the evolution of social behavior. How have ecological and genetic factors contributed to the formation and duration of groups? During my dissertation work, I used galling aphids as a model system to understanding these factors in closely related species of social and non-social aphids. For my postdoctoral research, I am focusing on the small carpenter beeThe small carpenter bees, genus Ceratina, exhibit a range of behaviors, including maternal care, division of labor, mutual tolerance and kin discrimination, which are often posited as emergent properties of highly social groups. Some ceratinines are even capable of forming eusocial colonies. Ceratina offer unique insights into the origin and elaboration of social behavior, because of their full range of social behavior from solitary to eusocial within the genus.