SFI External Professor Orit Peleg (CU Boulder) has been named a “Schmidt Science Polymath” by the philanthropic organization Schmidt Sciences. Peleg is one of six awardees this year who will each receive $2.5 million over the next five years to pursue risky, novel ideas.
Peleg, a computer scientist at CU Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute, studies how species generate and interpret biological communication signals. Her work explores how fireflies use light to communicate over long distances, how bees in a hive amplify one another’s pheromone signals to share information about the queen’s location, and how sunflowers “dance” to allow individual flowers to grow.
Peleg will use the Schmidt Science Polymath funds to study the evolutionary origins and diversification of communication across different animal species and how it manifests in the group cognition of social animals.
“Receiving this award reinforces my belief that many exciting discoveries happen at the intersections of different fields, which aligns closely with the spirit of the Santa Fe Institute,” says Peleg. “This award will allow me to explore key questions about the evolution of biological communication, such as: How did different biological entities develop their unique ways of sharing information? Are there common principles behind these processes? Ultimately, I hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of the diverse ways in which life communicates.”