Molly Cummings is a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Texas at Austin. She investigates questions concerning camouflage, signal design and decision-making processes with fish. Recognizing that fish were the first vertebrates on our planet, she focuses on species that share some of the same challenges we humans face with the hope that their solutions can provide insight into our own issues. She employs a diverse array of approaches to identify basic mechanisms underlying processes ranging from polarization camouflage to the brain pathways involved in navigating complex social interactions.