All members of the St Hugh’s community are warmly invited to join us for Dr Chris Pull’s online lecture ‘Preventing epidemics – what do ants have to teach us?’ on 23 February 2022, 5pm-6pm (UK time).
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief one of the toughest challenges societies face: infectious disease. Human society has some way to go in improving its epidemic resilience, but other animal societies have existed with their diseases for millennia. What, if anything, can we learn from them? In this talk, Chris will discuss how social insects, with a particular focus on the colonies of ants, have seemingly solved the problem of infectious disease.
Chris is a Lecturer in Animal Behaviour in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, and a Stipendiary Lecturer at St Hugh’s College. Scroll down to find out more about our speaker.
Booking Information
This online event will take place via Zoom webinar. To register, please fill in the booking form below by 4pm on the day before the event. You will have the opportunity to suggest questions for Chris on your booking form, and you will also be able to ask questions during the webinar by typing in the Q&A box.
The event is free, but we ask you to consider making a donation to the College’s Discretionary Fund when you book your ticket. Your gifts to the Discretionary Fund are crucial in helping to support the College’s greatest needs.
Please note that you do not need a Paypal account to make a donation online when you book your ticket. If you would prefer to make a donation by cheque, please do book a free ticket below and post your cheque to: The Development Office, St Hugh’s College, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford, OX2 6LE. Please make your cheque payable to ‘St Hugh’s College’, and be sure to write your full name and the fund to which you would like to donate on the back of the cheque.
Joining details will be sent out to those who have registered on the day before the event (please ensure that you enter your email address carefully on the booking form).
Please note that St Hugh’s College’s virtual events may be recorded.
Chris has long been fascinated with the lives of the tiny animals that quietly go about their business under our feet. He first started studying ants in 2011, completing a research master’s at Royal Holloway. Chris then began a PhD at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, where he investigated how ants detect and then prevent infections from turning into colony-wide epidemics. Returning to the UK and Royal Holloway, Chris’ postdoctoral work focused on the memory of foraging bumblebees. In 2020, Chris joined Oxford University’s Zoology Department and St Hugh’s College as Departmental and Stipendiary Lecturer, respectively.
