University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB graduate student Michael Sheehan won best student paper from the Animal Behavior Society at the first joint meeting of ABS and the International Ethological Congress in Bloomington, Ind. in late July 2011.

According to the ABS newsletter, The Warder Clyde Allee Symposium for best student paper is always a highlight of the conference. This year nine finalists were selected from 19 students who applied to participate. All of the presentations were of exceptionally high quality. After considerable discussion, the judges awarded this year's $1,000 prize to Sheehan for his paper entitled "Individual recognition in Polistes fuscatus wasps: correlated evolution of receiver cognition and sender phenotypes."

Sheehan discussed the evolution of color patterns used for recognition in wasps, particularly their unique facial patterns, and the evolution of learning abilities associated with recognition at the “Behavior 2011” meeting.