Leticia Avilés is an Ecuadoran evolutionary biologist and ecologist who studies the evolution of social behavior and the evolution of life history traits in metapopulations. Her methods include a combination of theory and empirical work, the latter using social spiders as a model system. Her research on these organisms has addressed questions such as why some spiders live in groups, why do they exhibit highly female-biased sex ratios, and why have they evolved a system where individuals remain in the natal nest to mate from generation to generation.
Career
Avilés is perhaps best known for having recognized the importance of social spiders as model systems to address basic questions in ecology and evolution. In the process she discovered a number of social spiders previously unknown to science, including a nomadic social spider whose colonies reproduce by fission—Aebutina binotata, a social lynx spider—Tapinillus sp., and a social theridiid whose colonies exhibit a boom and bust pattern of growth and adult females occur in two distinct size classes—Theridion nigroannulatum. Her theoretical work has addressed questions such as the importance of multilevel selection in the evolution of female-biased sex ratios, why strongly inbred systems may evolve, and the importance of ecology and nonlinear dynamics in social evolution. One of Avilés's theoretical papers addresses the question of how cooperation among nonrelatives can be maintained despite the presence of freeloaders. Today, Avilés is a professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia in Canada, where she does research in ecology and evolution.
Education
Avilés is a native of Ecuador. Undergraduate: Licentiate in Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito. Ph.D: Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 1992. Postdoctoral Fellow: Research Training Group in the Analysis of Biological Diversification, University of Arizona, 1992–1994.
Awards
2001 Fellow Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin for Research
1992 Young Investigator Award, American Society of Naturalists for Research
References
Further reading
"Department of Zoology." Leticia Avilés. University of British Columbia, 20 May 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231221/http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/person/laviles "Avilés Laboratory". UBC Biodiversity Research Center, n.d. Web. 16 June 2014. http://blogs.ubc.ca/avileslab/. "USA Science & Engineering Festival – Role Models in Science & Engineering Achievement." Leticia Avilés. USA Science and Engineering Festival, 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140730232132/http://www.usasciencefestival.org/schoolprograms/2014-role-models-in-science-engineering/1065-leticia-aviles.html
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Ecuadorian biologists Ecuadorian women scientists Women evolutionary biologists Harvard University alumni University of Arizona alumni 21st-century Ecuadorian women