Rate My Professor Jessica Purcell

Jessica Purcell is an associate professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside, where she joined the faculty as an assistant professor in July 2015. She earned her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of British Columbia in 2009, supervised by Leticia Avilés, focusing on gradients of precipitation and ant abundance contributing to altitudinal range limits in subsocial spiders. Earlier, she received a B.A. in Biology and History from Williams College in 2002, graduating cum laude with honors in Biology. Her postdoctoral research from 2010 to 2015 was conducted in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Lausanne under Michel Chapuisat, investigating social polymorphisms in Formica selysi ants. Previous roles include lecturer and postdoc at the University of British Columbia in 2009, teaching assistant during her Ph.D., and research intern at Lund University in 2003-2004.

Purcell's research examines the ecology and genetics of social arthropods, integrating population genomics, field ecology, manipulative experiments, and modeling to understand drivers of social organization transitions. Her lab studies social spiders in the genus Anelosimus, socially polymorphic ants in the genus Formica, and yellowjacket wasps Vespula pensylvanica. Key contributions include identifying ecological factors like rainfall, predator abundance, floods, and pathogens influencing social structure; discovering supergenes controlling ant social organization; and exploring task partitioning, hybridization, and mate choice in social insects. Notable publications comprise 'An ancient and eroded social supergene is widespread across Formica ants' (Current Biology, 2020, with Alan Brelsford et al.), 'Convergent genetic architecture underlies social organization in ants' (Current Biology, 2014), 'Maternal effect killing by a supergene controlling ant social organization' (PNAS, in press as of 2020), and 'Ant brood function as life preservers during floods' (PLoS ONE, 2014). She has secured major funding including the NSF CAREER Award (2020, $750,000), USDA NIFA grant (2019, $1,000,000 as PI), Binational Science Foundation Grant (2018, $270,000), NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2004-2008, $90,000), and Fulbright Fellowship (2005, $12,500). Purcell serves on the editorial boards of Neotropical Biodiversity (since 2019) and Biology Letters (since 2017), and on UCR committees such as the Entomology Teaching Evaluation Committee (since 2017) and Student Curriculum and Admissions Committee (2015-2019). She has mentored numerous Ph.D. students and received the Entomological Society of America Distinction in Student Mentoring Award in 2022.