Organisms living in societies benefit from a lot of advantages, for example by cooperating when foraging, rearing offspring or defending against predators. However, social life can also pose challenges, like an increased exposure to pathogens. Social insects, because they live in stable nests, crowded in groups of often closely related individuals, are particularly vulnerable to the spread of diseases. Confronted by such threats, social insects can not only rely on their own immune system, but also on the evolution of a “social immune system”, or “social immunity”. The aim of my Phd project is to investigate some of the collective defenses of ants. Specifically, I'm studying the sharing of chemical defenses, whether they are exogenous, like the use of resin in wood ants, or endogenous, like the antibiotic substances produced by the metapleural glands, structures unique to ants.
Born in 1981, Meyrin, Switzerland
2010-present:
Phd, Social immunity in ants (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
Advisor: Dr Michel Chapuisat
2008-2010:
Master of Science in Biology (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
Orientation: Behavior, Evolution and Conservation
Dissertation: Defenses against parasites in ants: Influence of a fungal parasite on colony founding and distribution of resin in the nests
Advisors: Michel Chapuisat & Anabelle Reber
2007- 2008:
Biology courses at the University of Lausanne as an auditor (2nd and 3rd years of Bachelor)
Internship at the DEE, University of Lausanne, Chapuisat Group
2006–2007:
Internship, research assistant
Service de Psychiatrie de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent, HUG (Geneva hospital)
Supervisor: Dr Rémy Barbe.
2006-2007:
Master of Science in Psychology (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Orientations: Cognitive Psychology & Clinical Psychology
Dissertation: Test de modèles mathématiques de l’intégration du chemin chez l’humain.
(A test of mathematical models of path integration in humans.)
Advisor: Dr Roland Maurer
CUSO courses:
Phylogenèse du comportement et adaptation sociale. University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2001-2005:
License in psychology (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Orientations: Social psychology, Educational Psychology, Adult Clinical Psychology
Dissertation: L’influence sociale et la discrimination: le rôle de la norme, de la menace et de la perception de la divergence par rapport à une norme intragroupe et socioculturelle. (Social influence and discrimination: role of the norm, threat and perception of divergence to an intra-group and sociocultural norm.)
Advisors: Juan-Manuel Falomir Pichastor & Gabriel Mugny
