To find out about how I got to start this wonderful group, read my CV.
My research has always been at the intersection between the computational sciences and biological evolution. Previously to starting the lab, my research focused on understanding the evolution of social behavior in a variety of systems. My early research applied evolutionary thinking to the design of computational algorithms. During my PhD, I used robots as models of individual animals to study the evolution of cooperative communication. The robot project is described here. I then spent my post-doc time immersing myself in microbiology and microbial evolution, with the goal of redirecting my work toward understanding these fascinating organisms that are implicated in many practical problems. This page gives more details about this work, which has focused on social interactions in a single species of bacteria.
Our current focus in the lab is on the ecology and evolution of simple microbial communities composed of a handful of species in the lab. Our ambition is to reveal the logic of how microbial ecosystems function, starting at the level of genes that drive the behavior of individual cells, all the way to the level of communities and their overall functioning. Read more about our research here.