Eric's research on genetic variation in social structure has been featured on Rice News! Check out this short article (https://news.rice.edu/news/2021/popularity-runs-families) and fun video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi9atHy5vv8).

The work describes Eric's dissertation research, and specifically their recent findings that genotypes differ in how they are connected socially to other flies (as described by social network analysis). Further, the adaptive value of these social connections varied across nutritional environments, suggesting that there is no one "right" way to be social as a fly. Instead, variation in selection pressures should adaptively maintain the presence of diverse genotypes in the population. Read the original article, published in Nature Communications, here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23672-1

Congratulations Eric!