The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced that ecologist Sarah Kocher is one of the 31 new Freeman Hrabowski Scholars from 22 institutions. Freeman Hrabowski Scholars are outstanding early career faculty in science who have potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create diverse and inclusive lab environments in which everyone can thrive.

Kocher, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, is investigating what shapes variation in social behavior. Her lab has developed new tools to study social behavior across different scales, from the molecular building blocks of the “social brain” to the ecological and evolutionary forces that shape social evolution.