The ant whisperer

Laurent Keller is a world-renowned expert on ants. For almost 30 years, the passionate evolutionary biologist has been studying the social and cooperative behaviour of ants. He has made important theoretical and experimental contributions towards a better understanding of natural selection and social behaviour in groups of animals. Based on his findings, he has drawn conclusions about human social behaviour when it comes to dealing with stress and ageing, for example. He was also able to show that robots can be used more efficiently if they are programmed to replicate the behaviour of ants. Laurent Keller is happy to communicate his findings in the press and in books to reach out to the general public. He is Director of the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Lausanne and member of the Research Council of the SNSF. Professor Keller has won numerous prizes, including the Marcel Benoist Prize in 2015.