I am interested in elucidating the forces responsible for the association of lower level units into higher levels of organization and the consequences of such associations on the structure and dynamics of populations. Using a multilevel selection perspective and both empirical and theoretical approaches, current areas of research include: (1) the causes and consequences of social evolution, (2) the short and long term consequences of inbreeding, and (3) the evolution of life history traits and local population dynamics in metapopulations. While visiting Bob’s lab I have been working on models to place the ecological drivers of sociality within a single
unifying framework. Here is a link to my website and list of publications at the University of British Columbia: http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/person/laviles.