Welcome to Ant Insights

This is the personal web site of Scott Powell. I am a research biologist working on how ecology shapes adaptive trait evolution, and how these traits influence community structure. To address these topics, I work with ants, a globally and locally diverse group that also displays truly remarkable patterns of trait diversification. I am currently based in the EEB Department at the University of Arizona, with two NSF-funded collaborations. One is based in the mountains around Tucson, and the other is based in the beautiful and hyper-diverse 'cerrado' biome of Brazil.

I follow the philosophy that the big questions in biology are best answered by building on a detailed knowledge of one's study organisms. To date I have worked with predatory Ponerine ants, the spectacular Army ants (Ecitoninae), and the peculiar Turtle Ants (Cephalotes). Each group has very different and fascinating biology that makes them ideally suited for addressing different big questions (hence 'Ant Insights': ants offer valuable insights into big questions in biology).

To find out a little more about my research and the ants that I work with, please follow the appropriate links in the navigation bar above. Ants are such weird and wonderful animals that I also have an ever-increasing collection of photos for you to browse. The remaining sections of my site are dedicated to my publications (with PDFs of papers and coverage of my work in the popular science press), C.V. and links to some of my favorite pages and people.

Please feel free to use the contact link below if you have any questions or comments on the content of my site. Cheers, Scott.