Jordan Smith Receives 2026 Thomas H. Kunz Award

Jordan Smith of the Traniello Lab recently received the 2026 Thomas H. Kunz Award. The Kunz Award recognizes and celebrates exemplary contributions by an early or mid-career scientist to the study of bats, including measurable impacts on bat research and/or conservation, student mentoring, public education, and collaborations. Read about Jordan’s research below!

The unusually broad diets and great species diversity of ants makes them an excellent model system to study the evolution of gustation, or taste. Jordan is using gene phylogenies, ancestral state reconstructions, and phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) models to study gustatory receptor (GR) evolution across 163 ant genomes and evaluate correlations between receptor number, diet, and social traits. As an exemplar of the evolution of taste in relation to social organization, Jordan is also analyzing gustatory polyphenisms in the strongly polymorphic fungus-growing ant Atta cephalotes, and is investigating how pronounced task specialization such as leaf cutting, fungal gardening, nursing, and defense impacts the mechanisms and evolution of gustatory variation. Feeding assays are quantifying subcaste-specific preferences for sugars, salts, amino acids, and secondary plant compounds, while transcriptomic studies of GR expression on worker mouthparts, forelegs, and antennae will reveal mechanisms underpinning behavioral and metabolic gustatory differences. Jordan’s integrative studies will elucidate how diet and division of labor impact the evolution of gustation.

This award provides support for Ecology, Behavior & Evolution (EBE) PhD candidates who have completed the qualifying exam, with a preference for those conducting field research in the award year. The award was established in 2015 in recognition and appreciation of Professor Thomas H. Kunz’s mentorship. His current and former graduate students established this award to serve as a lasting legacy of Tom’s contributions at BU and beyond. Learn more about Dr. Kunz and how you can support this award.

Congratulations, Jordan!