Professor
Contact
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000 3401
Email: sylvia.cremer(at)ista.ac.at
Career
| since 2015 | Full Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, AT |
| 2010 – 2015 | Assistant Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, AT |
| 2006 – 2010 | Group Leader, Habilitation at the University of Regensburg, DE |
| 10 – 12/2006 | Junior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, Berlin, DE |
| 2002 – 2006 | Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen, DK |
| 1998 – 2002 | Dr. rer. nat (PhD), University of Regensburg, DE |
Selected Awards and Research Funding
- ERC Consolidator Grant EPIDEMICSonCHIP
- Elisabeth Lutz Prize by the Austria Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
- Walther Arndt Prize of the German Zoological Society (DZG)
- Research Award Lower Austria: Anerkennungspreis des Landes Niederösterreich
- Elected Member of the Junge Akademie of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, ÖAW
- ERC Starting Grant SocialVaccines
- Elected Member of the Junge Akademie (Young Academy of the National German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina)
Research Interests
My main research interest lies in understanding the evolution of cooperative disease defences in insect societies. In contrast to solitary organisms, individuals in social groups do not have to rely solely on their own behavioural and physiological immune systems. By performing collective hygienic measures they help each other and thereby greatly decrease disease susceptibility of group members.
In my team, we study the effects of pathogens on social interaction networks in ant societies and determine how interaction with sick nestmates affects both the hygiene behaviours and the physiological immune system of individual ant workers. We study host-pathogen systems with ants and their fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens. We consider ant societies and their pathogens an ideal model system to understand epidemiology in societies.
My research interest evolved from sexual selection and ageing in male-dimorphic ants in my PhD (University of Regensburg) to the unique super-cooperative social structure in invasive ants in my postdoc (University of Copenhagen). Since my time as a Junior Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Berlin and a PI (University of Regensburg, IST Austria), my research focus lies on how social insects cooperatively protect their colony from disease, that is, their social immunity.
Social immunity publications
Other Publications
- Schrempf A, Cremer S, Heinze J (2011)
Social influence on age and reproduction: reduced lifespan and fecundity in multi‐queen ant colonies.
Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Volume 24, Issue 7, Pages 1455–1461
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02278.x - Cremer S, Schrempf A, Heinze J (2011)
Competition and Opportunity Shape the Reproductive Tactics of Males in the Ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.
PLoS ONE 6(3): e17323.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017323 - Suefuji M, Cremer S, Oettler J and Heinze J (2008)
Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants.
Biology Letters 4: 670–673
http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355 - Cremer S, Ugelvig LV, Drijfhout FP, Schlick-Steiner BC, Steiner FM, Seifert B, et al. (2008)
The Evolution of Invasiveness in Garden Ants. PLoS ONE 3(12): e3838. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003838 - Ugelvig LV, Drijfhout FP, Kronauer DJ, Boomsma JJ, Pedersen JS, Cremer S (2008) The introduction history of invasive garden ants in Europe: Integrating genetic, chemical and behavioural approaches.
BMC Biology 6, 11
https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-6-11 - Cremer S, D’Ettorre P, Drijfhout FP, et al. (2008)
Imperfect chemical female mimicry in males of the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.
Naturwissenschaften 95, 1101–1105
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0430-8 - Ugelvig LV, Cremer S (2007)
Social prophylaxis: group interaction promotes collective immunity in ant colonies.
Current Biology, Volume 17, Issue 22, 1967 – 1971
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.10.029 - Moder K, Schlick-Steiner BC, Steiner FM, Cremer S, Christian E, Seifert B (2006)
Optimal species distinction by discriminant analysis: comparing established methods of character selection with a combination procedure using ant morphometrics as a case study.
Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 45 , pp. 82-87
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0469.2006.00372.x - Heinze J, Cremer S, Eckl N, Schrempf A (2006)
Stealthy invaders: the biology of Cardiocondyla tramp ants.
Insectes sociaux 53, 1-7
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-005-0847-4 - Ustinova J, Achmann R, Cremer S et al. (2006)
Long Repeats in a Huge Genome: Microsatellite Loci in the Grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus.
J Mol Evol 62, 158–167
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-005-0022-6 - Cremer S, Ugelvig LV, Lommen STE, Petersen KS, Pedersen JS (2006)
Attack of the invasive garden ant: aggression behaviour of Lasius neglectus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) against native Lasius species in Spain.
Myrmecological News 9, 13 – 19 - de Menten L, Cremer S, Heinze J, Aron S (2005)
Primary sex ratio adjustment by ant queens in response to local mate competition.
Animal Behaviour 69, 5, p 1031-1035