Hi, I am Sachin, a Ph.D. student in the Linksvayer lab at Arizona State University.
I am broadly interested in the mechanistic underpinnings and evolution of social systems. My work focuses especially on eusocial insects, such as ants, which are often considered to have the highest level of social organization. These ant colonies are organized around a striking reproductive division of labor: only queens are capable of reproduction, while workers are sterile. It's also intriguing that these distinct 'castes' often arise from the same genome in response to varying environmental conditions. I am especially interested in the molecular basis of such differential caste development in ants and other social systems. I also spend time thinking about how these eusocial societies have evolved independently across the tree of life.
Before starting my Ph.D. journey, I had the opportunity to work on honey bee foraging ecology in the Brockmann lab at NCBS, Bangalore. For my Master’s thesis in the Annagiri lab at IISER Kolkata, I investigated worker recruitment behavior and collective decision-making in the ponerine ant, Diacamma indicum.
I love ants, bees and all other critters. But raccoons are my favorite.