Ryan Brock

I am a current PhD student in the Bourke group at the University of East Anglia. My research focuses on the molecular and behavioural mechanisms underlying social evolution and range expansions in bumblebees, using the Tree Bumblebee - a recent UK colonist - as a study system. More generally, I am interested in the evolution of social behaviour in insects, birds and mammals; the evolution of host-parasite and plant-pollinator interactions, especially in relation to bees and other social insects; and science communication.

Previously, I undertook a MSc (by Research) in the Sumner lab at the University of Bristol. My research focused on social evolution and transcriptomics in the Epiponini, a tribe of Neotropical social wasps. Alongside this, I was also involved in a project which dealt with the economic and ecological value of wasps.