Research in our lab focuses on the origin and evolution of ants, and in particular, how different factors may influence patterns of diversification - from the rise of the flowering plants, associations ants have with other insects and plants, to their microbial community are all potential underlying factors that may have facilitated their ecological dominance in almost all terrestrial ecosystems.  In addition we are interested in how biogeography, climate change and invasive ants have and will continue to affect the evolutionary processes that generate and sustain high biological diversity in tropical rainforests and other habitats.  More specifically we are interested in how we can use molecular methods, next-generation sequencing, and comparative genomics to address these questions.