I am a Ph.D candidate in in the Traniello Lab in Boston University’s graduate program in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. I am broadly interested in social behavior in animals, particularly the complex and highly integrated insect societies of ants, bees, wasps, and termites. A hallmark of these societies is efficient division of labor among colony members, a phenomenon that is achieved without centralized control. My thesis research focuses on ants in the hyperdiverse genus Pheidole. I seek to understand both the overall pattern of division of labor in Pheidole colonies, and how neural differences among workers (neuroanatomical and neurochemical) lead individuals to have different task preferences and abilities, which produces division of labor at the colony level.