Deborah M. Gordon (born December 30, 1955) is a biologist, appointed as a professor in the Department of Biology at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Major research

Gordon studies

ant colony An ant colony is a population of a single ant species capable to maintain its complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the vario ...

behavior and ecology, with a particular focus on

red harvester ant ''Pogonomyrmex barbatus'' is a species of harvester ant from the genus ''Pogonomyrmex''. Its common names include red ant and red harvester ant. These large (5– to 7-mm) ants prefer arid chaparral habitats and are native to the Southwestern ...

s. She focuses on the developing behavior of colonies, even as individual ants change functions within their own lifetimes. Gordon's fieldwork includes a long-term study of ant colonies in Arizona. She is the author of numerous articles and papers as well as the book ''Ants at Work'' for the general public, and she was profiled in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Magazine'' in 1999. In 2012, she found that the foraging behavior of

s matches the

TCP congestion control Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) uses a network congestion-avoidance algorithm that includes various aspects of an additive increase/multiplicative decrease (AIMD) scheme, along with other schemes including slow start and congestion window ...

algorithm.

Education

Gordon received a Ph.D. in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

from

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

in 1983, an M.Sc. in Biology from

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

in 1977 and a bachelor's degree from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

, where she majored in French. She was a junior fellow of the

Harvard Society of Fellows The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intell ...

Awards and recognition

In 1993, Gordon was named a Stanford MacNamara Fellow. In 1995 Gordon received an award for teaching excellence from the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

Northern California Association. In 2001 Gordon was awarded a

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

from the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

. In 2003, Gordon was invited to speak at a

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

conference.TED Talks: Deborah Gordon digs ants
at

, 2003 She is also an adviser to the Microbes Mind Forum.

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

The Gordon Lab
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Deborah 1955 births Living people Myrmecologists American entomologists Women entomologists Harvard Fellows Duke University alumni Oberlin College alumni Stanford University alumni Stanford University Department of Biology faculty Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows