Dr. Jessica Purcell

Dr. Jessica Purcell is an assistant professor at UCR’s Entomology department. Her research is mainly focused on the social systems of insects, specifically ants, and spiders. Her goal is to understand how different social organizations evolve and the selective pressures that favor different social strategies. Some topics of her research include how ant workers partition tasks and how ants manipulate the environment around their nests. In her research, she uses approaches that include population genomics, biogeography, and experimental ecology. Dr. Purcell has several articles that have been published in journals such as Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology and Current Biology. She’s received several awards and grants including the NSF Career Award and the USDA NIFA HIS Training grant. She also teaches the courses, Evidence for Evolution and Core Areas of Entomology at UCR.