Jennifer Hellmann

I am currently a third year PhD candidate in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University. I study the evolution of social behavior in cooperatively breeding systems. My research interests center on exploring how different levels of the social system (individuals, groups, colonies) interact and influence each other. How do individual characteristics influence how individuals invest in social relationships within their groups versus with individuals in neighboring groups, and how does the social structure facilitate those interactions? I am exploring these questions through a mixture of experimental (both field and laboratory) and theoretical work.