Anna Dornhaus

About

Anna Dornhaus is a professor leading the Social Insect Lab at the University of Arizona, where she and her team study social insect colonies, including ants and bees, to understand complex social systems. Their research focuses on how insects work together, investigating collective behaviors such as group organization and individual actions that enable effective problem solving, task allocation, search, and decision-making. By understanding how collective patterns emerge from individual behaviors, their work aims to inform the design of better computing systems, improve human society, and provide insights into broad principles of biology. In addition to her research, Professor Dornhaus is deeply committed to science education and outreach. She supports K-12 teachers and students through initiatives like the Cricket Project, which allows young learners to engage directly with scientific inquiry by studying insect behavior. This project integrates multiple disciplines including reading, writing, math, and science standards, fostering active problem-solving and hands-on learning. Professor Dornhaus advocates for science as a powerful approach to discovery and problem-solving, emphasizing the scientific method's role in achieving objective insights and addressing complex challenges beyond intuitive solutions.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Biology
• Ecology
• Communication
• Psychology
• Mathematics
• Algorithm
• Statistical physics
• Genetics
• Statistics

Selected publications

• Individual and collective cognition in ants and other insects (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

  Explore Bristol Research · 2024-07-23 · 38 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Ants are regarded by many non-scientists as reflex automata, with hardwired and inflexible behaviour. Even in the modern field of complexity science, they are sometimes portrayed as an example of simple units that can nevertheless, construct collective processes and infrastructures of bewildering sophistication, through feedback-controlled mass action. However, classical studies and recent investigations both have shown repeatedly that individual ants and other arthropods can display great flexi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ants combine systematic meandering and correlated random walks when searching for unknown resources

  iScience · 2023 · 16 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  ) in a large empty arena, resulting in almost 5 km of trajectories. We tested for meandering by comparing the turn autocorrelations for empirical ant tracks and simulated, realistic Correlated Random Walks. We found that 78% of ants show significant negative autocorrelation around 10 mm (3 body lengths). This means that turns in one direction are likely followed by turns in the opposite direction after this distance. This meandering likely makes the search more efficient, as it allows ants to av…

  DOI

• Size variation does not act as insurance in bumble bees; instead, workers add weight in an unpredictable environment

  Animal Behaviour · 2020 · 11 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Foraging behavior and extended phenotype independently affect foraging success in spiders

  Behavioral Ecology · 2020 · 8 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Multiple phenotypic traits often interact with each other to determine an individual’s fitness. Behavioral and extended phenotypic traits, such as architectural constructions, can contribute to fitness in an integrated way. The goal of this study was to understand how the interaction between behavioral and extended phenotypic traits can affect foraging success. We tested this question using black widow spiders, where spiders that are aggressive in a foraging context tend to build more g…

  DOI

• Ant colonies explore novel environments with more slower, curvier walks, particularly near the nest

  Insectes Sociaux · 2023-10-17 · 7 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: ABI Development: A User-friendly Tool for Highly Accurate Video Tracking

  NSF · $207k · 2016–2020

• Collaborative Proposal: ABI Innovation: Rapid, Interactive, Visual Mining of Biological Motion

  NSF · $279k · 2013–2016

• Adaptive distribution of morphological specialists in social insects: New insights into the evolution of division of labor

  NSF · $450k · 2009–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Nigel R. Franks

  University of Bristol

  26 shared

• Benjamin Blonder

  17 shared

• Joshua S. Hoskinson

  15 shared

• J. A. Banks

  University of California, Berkeley

  15 shared

• Rebecca Lipson

  15 shared

• Alan Strauss

  15 shared

• Austin Cruz

  Central University of the Caribbean

  15 shared

• Daniel Charbonneau

  University of Arizona

  15 shared

Labs

• Dornhaus LabPI

  The Dornhaus Lab conducts research on social insects, focusing on the behavior and social structure of ants.

Similar researchers at University of Arizona

• Bruce Tabashnikh-94
• Nicholas Strausfeldh-75
• Daniel Papajh-49