>Thomas H. Kunz, Ph. D.
Professor of Biology
Director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology (CECB)
Boston University, Biology Department, 5 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215, USA
Professor of Biology
Director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology (CECB)
Boston University, Biology Department, 5 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215, USA
Thomas
H. Kunz is Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Ecology
and Conservation Biology at Boston University, where he has been
on the faculty for the past 35 years. He received a BA in Biology
and MA in Education from the University of Central Missouri, a MA
in Biology from Drake University, and a Ph.D. in Systematics and
Ecology from the University of Kansas. His research focuses
on the ecology, behavior, evolution, and conservation biology of
bats. He is the author or co-author of over 200 publications and
is the editor of Ecology of Bats (Plenum Press, 1982) and Ecological
and Behavioral Methods for the Study of Bats (Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1988); and co-editor of Bat Biology and Conservation (Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1998), Bat Ecology (University of Chicago Press,
2003), Functional and Evolutionary Ecology of Bats (Oxford University
Press, 2006), and the 2nd edition of Ecological and Behavioral Methods
for the Study of Bats (Johns Hopkins University Press, in press).
He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, Past-President of the American Society of Mammalogists,
and a recipient of the Gerrit S. Miller Jr. Award for outstanding
research on bats and the C. Hart Merriam Award for outstanding contributions
to the discipline of mammalogy. He has conducted field research
in mid-western, northeastern and southwestern regions of the United
States, and in India, Malaysia, Ecuador, Trinidad, Puerto Rico,
and Costa Rica. His current research is funded by grants from the
National Science Foundation and the National Park Service, where
his work focuses on assessing the ecological and economic impact
of Brazilian free-tailed bats on agroecosystems and the influence
of environmental factors on the prevalence of rabies in two species
of North American insectivorous bats. He has conducted field
research throughout North America, in Costa Rica, Ecuador, India,
Malaysia, and the West Indies. He had developed numerous methods
for the ecological and behavioral studies of bats and has recently
pioneered applications of thermal infrared imaging in ecology and
behavior. He is currently a member of a National Research Council
committee investigating Environmental Impacts of Wind Energy, and
is leading a National Wind Coordinating Committee charged with preparing
a document entitled Methods and Metrics for Studying the Impacts
of Wind Power on Bats and Nocturnally-Active Birds.