James Lewis, an assistant professor, was awarded a $1.3 million National Science Foundation CAREER grant. The NSF CAREER Award is among the most prestigious in the nation for early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in their field.
Dr. Lewis will study Heliconiine butterflies living in Central America as a part of his grant. Heliconiine butterfly species that live in the same region often share the same wing color patterns, a process known as mimicry, to increase their individual protection from predators.
“A butterfly that is brightly colored, but not mimetic, is both easily seen by predators and lacks the protection they previously gained from wing pattern mimicry. This appears, at first glance, to be the worst of both worlds. This is exactly the sort of unexpected change that I want to study,” said Lewis.
Read more in the Clemson News article.
