Noa Pinter-Wollman

Noa Pinter-Wollman is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, within the College of Life Sciences. Her work integrates field experiments, laboratory assays, computational modeling, and social network analysis to understand how individual variation among animals translates into emergent collective behavior, and how these dynamics intersect with conservation challenges.

Research Focus:

• Mechanisms underlying collective decision-making in social insects (especially Argentine ants and harvester ants)
• Social network structure and its ecological consequences in endangered griffon vultures
• Interface between spatial ecology and social behavior, including impacts on disease transmission and conservation management
• Biomimetic insights from social animals to inform resilient human-designed systems

Across 2023–2025, her team has produced a steady stream of high-impact articles that collectively advance four thematic pillars: (1) microbiome–behavior feedbacks in ants, (2) conservation technology for scavengers, (3) network-analytic methods for disentangling spatial versus social drivers of interaction, and (4) cooperative strategies that underlie invasion success in ants. The work is notable for integrating high-resolution tracking technologies with rigorous statistical modeling.

Funding & Collaborations:
Current NSF awards include the collaborative grant “The causes and consequences of Higher Order Interactions (HOI)” and prior support for “Uncovering how links between social and spatial interactions affect ecological processes.” These grants foster interdisciplinary partnerships spanning ecology, computer science, and conservation practice.

Laboratory & Team:
The Pinter-Wollman Lab at UCLA houses graduate researchers, post-docs, and undergraduates who conduct integrative studies on ants, paper wasps, spiders, and vultures. The lab website (https://pinter-wollmanlab.weebly.com) provides protocols, data resources, and outreach materials that translate basic findings into actionable conservation guidance for wildlife managers.