Darwin’s dilemma: If natural selection is the key to evolution, what motivates sterile castes of insects to support their colonies? In 1964, scientists studying social insects developed a new theoretical framework that could solve the dilemma: kin selection.

The theory showed how an individual could compensate for the lack of direct reproduction by enhancing the reproduction of close relatives, thereby getting genes they held in common into the next generation.

Joan Strassmann and David Queller have devoted their scientific careers to elucidating social evolution, first by focusing on social wasps in Texas, Venezuela and Italy, and more recently, by studying cellular slime molds (social amoebae). To create a fully experimental genetic social system, they are examining social genes to better understand sociality at the molecular level.

This year’s symposium will highlight Strassmann and Quellar’s work; she will review social wasp evolution, and he will focus on cooperation and conflict in a social amoeba.  Additionally, Al Hook, Lucian Professor of Natural Sciences at St. Edward’s, will kickoff the symposium with a discussion of the origins of group living in solitary wasps.

Speakers

Joan Strassmann and Dave Queller are co-holders of the Harry C. & Olga K. Wiess Professor in Natural Sciences at Rice University. Strassman also serves as chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, where they have both taught since the 1980s.

Their collaborative research has earned widespread acclaim. Each has earned a Guggenheim Fellowship and has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Additionally, both Strassmann and Queller have published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles, several in the prestigious journals Nature, Science and Evolution. Currently, both are participating in two National Science Foundation-funded research projects: the comparative sequencing of social amoebae in the Dictyostelidae and the evolution of biological social systems.

Strassmann earned a BS in Zoology at the University of Michigan and a PhD in Zoology at UT-Austin. Queller holds a BA in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Illinois and an MS and PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Michigan.

Allan W. Hook is the Lucian Professor of Natural Sciences at St. Edward’s University. Hook, who organized this symposium, has taught at St. Edward’s since 1988. His research focuses on the behavior and biodiversity of solitary wasps in North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Australia. Hook holds a BS in Biology from the University of Maine, an MS in Entomology from the University of Georgia and a PhD in Zoology and Entomology from Colorado State University.