Corrie Moreau

Corrie S. Moreau is an evolutionary biologist, and entomologist with a specialty in myrmecology, the study of ants. She is currently a curator at the Field Museum of Natural History and faculty member at the University of Chicago's Committee on Evolutionary Biology. Moreau studies the evolution, biogeography, systematics, and diversification of insects and their microbial gut-symbionts using molecular and genomic tools.

Moreau received a PhD in biology from Harvard University (2003 – 2007) under the guidance of Dr. E.O. Wilson and Dr. Naomi E. Pierce.

She received a MSc from San Francisco State University and the California Academy of Sciences (2000 – 2003) and a Bachelors (1996 – 2000) from San Francisco State University.

Moreau and colleagues were the first to establish the origin of the ants at 140 million years ago using molecular sequence data (40 million years older than previous estimates), and that the diversification of the ants coincided with the rise of the flowering plants (angiosperms). In addition, Moreau and Charles D. Bell showed that the tropics have been and continue to be important for the evolution of the ants. Moreau and colleagues have demonstrated the importance of gut-associated bacteria in the evolutionary and ecological success of ants through targeted bacterial and microbiome sequencing, including showing that bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants.

Moreau was featured in Chapter 13 of Dr. Edward O. Wilson’s 2013 book “Letters to a Young Scientist.”Wilson writes “There was no bravado in Corrie, no trace of overweening pride, no pretension.” Wilson goes on to state “The story of Corrie Saux Moreau’s ambitious undertaking is one I feel especially important to bring to you. It suggest that courage in science born of self-confidence (without arrogance!), a willingness to take a risk but with resilience, a lack of fear of authority, a set of mind that prepares you to take a new direction if thwarted, are of great value – win or lose."

Moreau was elected a Miller Fellow of the Miller Institute at the University of California, Berkeley (2007 – 2008). She received two "Excellence and Distinction in Teaching Awards" from Harvard University’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning (2004 & 2006).

In 2015 Moreau was included in "15 Brilliant Women Bridging the Gender Gap in Science" and in 2014 listed as "10 Women Scientists You Should Follow on Twitter".

In 2016 Moreau was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences.

Moreau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the subject of a museum exhibit and graphic novel, "The Romance of Ants" .

• Moreau, C. S., Bell, C. D., Vila, R., Archibald, S. B. & Pierce, N. P. (2006). Phylogeny of the ants: Diversification in the age of angiosperms. Science 312(5770): 101–104.
• Russell, J. A., Moreau, C. S., Goldman-Huertas, B., Fujiwara, M., Lohman, D. J. & Pierce, N. E. (2009). Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 106(50): 21236-21241.
• Rubin, B. E. R., Ree, R. H. & Moreau, C. S. (2012). Inferring phylogenies from RAD sequence data. PLOS ONE 7(4) e33394.
• Moreau, C. S. & Bell, C. D. (2013). Testing the museum versus cradle biological diversity hypothesis: Phylogeny, diversification, and ancestral biogeographic range evolution of the ants. Evolution 67(8): 2240-2257.
• Rubin, B. E. R. & Moreau, C. S. (2016). Comparative genomics reveals convergent rates of evolution in ant-plant mutualisms. Nature Communications 7: 12679.