Current Grads

James Waters

Waters_CV-2011.pdf

Research interests

I am a Biology PhD candidate in Jon Harrison's lab in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University and am interested in how the mechanics of physiological transport and communication networks influence organismal form and function.  My current dissertation research focuses on understanding the relationship between the behavioral organization of social insect colonies and the allometric scaling of metabolic rate with colony size.  At ASU, I have been an NSF graduate research fellow and a laboratory teaching assistant for Introductory Biology (Bio 100), Animal Physiology (Bio 361), and Biometry (Bio 415). 
 

Publications 

Schilman, Pablo E., James S. Waters, Jon F. Harrison, and John R. B. Lighton. 2011. Effects of temperature on responses to anoxia and oxygen reperfusion in Drosophila melanogaster. Journal of Experimental Biology 214 (8):1271-1275. [links: abstract, PDF]

Waters, James S., C. Tate Holbrook, Jennifer H. Fewell, and Jon F. Harrison. 2010. Allometric Scaling of Metabolism, Growth, and Activity in Whole Colonies of the Seed-Harvester Ant Pogonomyrmex californicus. The American Naturalist 176 (4):501-510. [links: abstract, PDF]

Socha, John J., Wah-Keat Lee, Jon F. Harrison, James S. Waters, Kamel Fezzaa, and Mark W. Westneat. 2008. Correlated patterns of tracheal compression and convective gas exchange in a carabid beetle. Journal of Experimental Biology 211 (21):3409-3420.  [links: abstract, PDF]

Socha, J. J., M. W. Westneat, J. F. Harrison, J. S. Waters, and W. K. Lee. 2007. Real-time phase-contrast x-ray imaging: a new technique for the study of animal form and function. BMC Biology 5:6. [links: abstract, PDF]

Popular press 

• Outside JEB: "Ant colonies obey 3/4 power 'law' of metabolic scaling"
• ASU News: "Social evolution regulates the 'fire of life'"
• Myrmecos.net: "More support for the superorganism concept"
• American Physiological Society: "Ant colonies shed light on metabolism"
• Life Lines: "Ant colonies & metabolic scaling, Parts I & II"

Education

• A.B., Mathematics. 2005. The University of Chicago.
• Ph.D. candidate, Biology. 2010. Arizona State University.

Movies

• P. californicus queen in the field [video]
• Seed harvester ant colony [video]
• Synchrotron x-ray video of live insects [video]
• Pterostichus tracheal compression [video]

Photography

• Ant macro iPhoneography
• Drosophila melanogaster
• Pogonomyrmex californicus
• Nemalim et alia

Links

• Harrison Lab
• Social Insect Research Group
• Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
• The Socha Lab at Virgina Tech
• Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
• The American Physiological Society
• Advanced Photon Source / Argonne National Laboratory
• Linked-in profile