The professor who works on fluid dynamics with Solenopsis invicta is David L. Hu at Georgia Institute of Technology. I've advertised some of his work on my website, under the "explore" section; his study on this topic is titled "Fire Ants Perpetually Rebuild Sinking Towers;" you can check it out at the Royal Society. His research combines soft condensed matter physics, fluid dynamics and biolocomotion, studying the ants individually as particles and the dynamic towers as complex systems. The experiments are definitely really cool; I guess they could be considered inhumane, but they use fire ants which have been inherently destructive and damaging to the South.
My brother (Bracchymyrmex) and I were recently accepted into Georgia Tech (applied physics for me and biology for him, ironically) and have been in touch with Dr. Hu, who has invited us to work with his group on biolocomotion in S. invicta. I'm not convinced I'll pursue this (being more interested in mathematics and finance, myself), but if I end up going to Tech, this will be an awesome opportunity to share with you all.
Edited by VoidElecent, March 16 2018 - 7:40 AM.