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Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
74
Citations
23127
World Ranking
1109
National Ranking
150

Overview

Nigel R. Franks is affiliated with the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Their research spans a variety of topics within agricultural and biological sciences, with a particular focus on ecology, evolution, behavior, and systematics. This includes work in subfields such as genetics, global and planetary change, cellular and molecular neuroscience, and biomedical engineering.

The scientist's research covers multiple main topics including animal behavior and reproduction, insect and arachnid ecology and behavior, amphibian and reptile biology, plant and animal studies, neurobiology and insect physiology research, primate behavior and ecology, and diffusion and search dynamics.

Recent papers authored or co-authored by Nigel R. Franks illustrate their contributions to the study of insect cognition and behavior as well as biological communication mechanisms. These include:

  • Individual and collective cognition in ants and other insects (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), 2024, published in Myrmecological news/Myrmecologische Nachrichten
  • Post-contact immobility and half-lives that save lives, 2020, Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
  • The Bayesian superorganism: externalized memories facilitate distributed sampling, 2020, Journal of The Royal Society Interface
  • Hide-and-seek strategies and post-contact immobility, 2021, Biology Letters
  • Robotic communication with ants, 2022, Journal of Experimental Biology

Frequent collaborators include Ana Sendova-Franks, A. Worley, George T. Fortune, Raymond E. Goldstein, and Anna Dornhaus. These partnerships reflect recurring co-authorship especially within studies of animal behavior and ecological interactions.

Publishing venues for their work emphasize biological and ecological sciences, including:

  • Myrmecological news/Myrmecologische Nachrichten
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
  • Biology Letters
  • Journal of Experimental Biology
  • Journal of The Royal Society Interface

Best Publications

  • Effective leadership and decision-making in animal groups on the move

    Iain D. Couzin;Jens Krause;Nigel R. Franks;Simon Asher Levin

  • Collective memory and spatial sorting in animal groups.

    Iain D. Couzin;Jens Krause;Richard James;Graeme D. Ruxton

  • Social evolution in ants

    Andrew F.G. Bourke;Nigel R. Franks

  • Teaching in tandem-running ants

    Nigel R. Franks;Tom Richardson

  • Self-organized lane formation and optimized traffic flow in army ants.

    Iain D. Couzin;Nigel R. Franks

  • Quorum sensing, recruitment, and collective decision-making during colony emigration by the ant Leptothorax albipennis

    Stephen C. Pratt;Eamonn B. Mallon;David J. T. Sumpter;Nigel R. Franks

  • Information flow, opinion polling and collective intelligence in house-hunting social insects.

    Nigel R. Franks;Stephen C. Pratt;Eamonn B. Mallon;Nicholas F. Britton

  • Speed versus accuracy in collective decision making.

    Nigel R. Franks;Anna Dornhaus;Jon P. Fitzsimmons;Martin Stevens

  • The blind leading the blind: Modeling chemically mediated army ant raid patterns

    Jean-Louis Deneubourg;Simon Goss;Nigel Franks;Jacques Pasteels

  • On optimal decision-making in brains and social insect colonies

    James A. R. Marshall;Rafal Bogacz;Anna Dornhaus;Robert Planqué

  • Individual and collective decision-making during nest site selection by the ant Leptothorax albipennis

    E. B. Mallon;S. C. Pratt;N. R. Franks

  • Strategies for choosing between alternatives with different attributes: exemplified by house-hunting ants

    Nigel R Franks;Eamonn B Mallon;Eamonn B Mallon;Helen E Bray;Mathew J Hamilton

  • Teams in animal societies

    Carl Anderson;Nigel R. Franks

  • Patterns of Nested Dispersion in a Tropical Ground Ant Community

    Sally C. Levings;Nigel R. Franks

  • Alternative adaptations, sympatric speciation and the evolution of parasitic, inquiline ants

    Andrew F. G. Bourke;Nigel R. Franks

  • Brood sorting by ants: distributing the workload over the work-surface

    N. R. Franks;A. B. Sendova-Franks

  • A model for the emergence of pillars, walls and royal chambers in termite nests

    Eric Bonabeau;Guy Theraulaz;Jean-Louis Deneubourg;Nigel R. Franks

  • Self-organizing nest construction in ants: sophisticated building by blind bulldozing

    N.R. Franks;A. Wilby;B.W. Silverman;C. Tofts

  • The behavioural ecology of ants.

    John H. Sudd;Nigel R. Franks

  • An agent-based model of collective nest choice by the ant Temnothorax albipennis

    Stephen C. Pratt;David J.T. Sumpter;Eamonn B. Mallon;Nigel R. Franks

  • Self-organizing nest construction in ants: individual worker behaviour and the nest's dynamics☆

    Nigel R Franks;Jean-Louis Deneubourg

  • The blind leading the blind in army ant raid patterns : testing a model of self-organization (Hymenoptera : Formicidae)

    Nigel R. Franks;N. Gomez;Simon Goss;Jean-Louis Deneubourg

Frequent Co-Authors

Anna Dornhaus
Anna Dornhaus University of Arizona
Jean-Louis Deneubourg
Jean-Louis Deneubourg Université Libre de Bruxelles
Martin Giurfa
Martin Giurfa Sorbonne University
Keith J. Edwards
Keith J. Edwards University of Bristol
Alasdair I. Houston
Alasdair I. Houston University of Bristol
John M. McNamara
John M. McNamara University of Bristol
Eric Bonabeau
Eric Bonabeau Icosystem (United States)
Naoki Masuda
Naoki Masuda University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Rafal Bogacz
Rafal Bogacz University of Oxford
Lia Hemerik
Lia Hemerik Wageningen University & Research

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