Dr. Christoph Grüter

Group leader

I'm a Senior Lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, UK. My research focuses on the behaviour, ecology and evolution of social insects. I'm particularly interested in communication and colony organisation in honeybees, stingless bees and ants.

Dr. Rajbir Kaur

Postdoctoral researcher

I am a behaviour biologist fascinated with the world of social insects. I have worked on many different aspects of collective behaviour in ants, from colony movement to parasitism with all possible means available - behavioural observation to molecular examination to chemical profiling. Currently I am exploring the world of bees with special focus on the impact of land-use change on their health and nutrition.

Yongqiang Wu

PhD candidate

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are important pollinators, and they face many anthropogenic challenges that affect the external environment of colonies, such as forage availability. I'm interested in how land use, foraging conditions and food stores affect individual behaviour, gene expression, health and abdominal fats. I will also explore if foraging success of honeybees is linked to the foraging distances.  

Sam Macro Versteeg

PhD candidate

I graduated from Aberystwyth university with a degree in Biochemistry before going to Cardiff university where I did my MSc in Biological chemistry working with Professor John Pickett on elucidating the biochemical production of a semiochemical: 2R,5S theaspirane. I now work on using the chemical ecology and behaviour of bees focussing mainly on how they change their foraging behaviour when they pick up chemical markers left by predatory insects.

Daniel Jones

MSc(R) student

Hello, my name is Daniel Jones; I study communication in honeybees. My project tests how land use affects communication in honeybees by studying their famous waggle dance. I plan to investigate whether bees dance more in specific habitats, such as urban and agricultural ones. Furthermore, the project examines if bees show more interest in dances when food source distribution is more clustered, e.g. in urban areas. Results generated by this project will reveal how modern landscapes affect honeybee communication and whether bees adjust their communication behaviour to different ecological circumstances.

Mini Graydon

MSc(R) student

My name is Mini and I am conducting a study on the health and nutritional status of Honey Bees across farms in the South West of England. I am investigating the relationship between: egg size; worker longevity; and floral resource diversity, using DNA metabarcoding techniques.   

In the evenings, I aim to promote the health and nutritional status of humans through my work as a Carnival Fitness Instructor at Piloxercise, and as a Food Cycle Volunteer. 

Luís Carvalho

MSc(R) student

My name is Luís Carvalho, I am a Masters by Research student investigating a kleptoparasitic relationship between two stingless bee species in Brazil. I am originally from Portugal and I completed my degree in Zoology at the University of Bristol.


Former PhD students

  • Dr. Anissa Kennedy (2018-2022)
  • Dr. Simone Glaser (2017-2021)
  • Dr. Tianfei Peng (2016-2020)
  • Dr. Robbie I'Anson Price (2013-2018)