Dr William Hughes

BSc, Bangor; MSc, Imperial; PhD, Southampton
Lecturer
Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology

Background: I completed my PhD on the chemical ecology of leaf-cutting ants in 2000. I then spent three years working at the University of Copenhagen funded by a Marie Curie Fellowship and the Carlsberg foundation, before taking up another Marie Curie Fellowship, this time at the Universities of Sydney and Sheffield. I joined the University of Leeds as a lecturer in 2006.

Office: Miall 9.16
Phone: +44(0) 113 34 37214
Email: email address for Dr William Hughes 

Centre membership: The Earth and Biosphere Institute

Lab: Leader of the Hughes_W group

You can read more about Dr Hughes's interests here:
www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fbswohh

Publications

List Dr Hughes's Publications


My research investigates the behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology of social, symbiotic and sexual systems. One or more of these intimate relationships is fundamental to practically all of life, and in all of them individuals are faced with the same basic challenge of needing to utilise other individuals for their own ultimately selfish ends. These relationships are therefore characterised by a delicate balancing act of cooperation and conflict between the interacting individuals. I am interested in both proximate and ultimate explanations for the ways individuals in these intimidate relationships interact. I primarily use social insects as my model systems. My research integrates chemical and molecular techniques with field and lab-based experiments on a range of species. You can read more about my research here.

 

Studentship information

Postgraduate studentship areas:

  • Evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology of sociality, symbiosis and sex, particularly in social insects

See also: