DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Understanding a landmark social insect radiation: comparative analysis, phylogenomics, and morphology of dorylomorph ants

行军蚁是世界上最引人注目的生物之一，分布在世界的暖温带和热带地区。它们是热带地区最重要的无脊椎动物捕食者，使它们成为雨林生态系统的关键物种。这项研究将重建行军蚁及其近亲的进化历史。这些蚂蚁的家谱，它们的地理起源和时间轴的特征，占其生态优势的演变将进行调查。利用分子生物学和生物信息学的最新进展，从蚂蚁DNA中构建进化树。然后，这棵树将作为一个框架，用于测试关于行军蚁特征进化的假设。这项研究亦会为识别行军蚁及与其有密切关系的物种提供新的架构。这项研究计划不但有助我们深入了解一组在生态上具有重要意义的昆虫的历史，亦有助我们了解分子生物学、统计学及电脑科学的最新发展，如何能改善我们对进化过程的认识。新的资源允许更容易和更准确地识别这些蚂蚁将有助于其他生物学家和保护专家在决策和规划进一步的研究。将教授计算生物学技术课程，促进对不断增加的生物数据量进行有效分析的技能。

Army ants, some of the most striking organisms, are found in warm temperate and tropical regions of the world. They are the most important invertebrate predators of the tropics, making them key species in rainforest ecosystems. This research will reconstruct the evolutionary history of army ants and their close relatives. The family tree of these ants, their geographic origins and the timeline of the evolution of traits that account for their ecological dominance will be investigated. An evolutionary tree will be constructed from the ants DNA using latest advances in molecular biology and bioinformatics. This tree will then serve as a framework for testing hypotheses on the evolution of army ant characteristics. This study will also provide a new framework for identification of army ants and closely related species.This project will not only bring insights into the history of an ecologically important group of insects but also help to understand how the latest advances in molecular biology, statistics and computer science can improve our knowledge of evolutionary processes. New resources allowing easier and more accurate identification of these ants will aid other biologists and conservation specialists in decision making and planning further research on the group. A class on techniques in computational biology will be taught, promoting skills in efficient analysis of the ever-increasing volume of biological data.