{"id":3096,"date":"2015-12-11T12:33:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T17:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/?page_id=3096"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:58:08","slug":"kunzfund","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/donate\/kunzfund\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thomas H. Kunz Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

Make a donation to the Kunz Fund<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the world\u2019s leading authorities on the biology of bats, Professor Thomas H. Kunz, was for over forty years an inspiring teacher to thousands of undergraduates, an enthusiastic proponent for bats and science in the public arena, and an exceptional mentor to dozens of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty. A William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, the highest academic honor conferred by Boston University, Tom was one of our most productive and highly regarded scientists. Tom passed away on April 13th, 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Kunz\"
Thomas Kunz in the field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In recognition and appreciation of Tom\u2019s mentorship, his current and former graduate students established the Thomas H. Kunz Fund in Biology to serve as a lasting legacy of Tom\u2019s contributions at BU and beyond, and to support future graduate education in ecology at Boston University. With support from Tom\u2019s former students, his family, his colleagues in the Biology department, other Biology alumni, and a long list of friends and colleagues from around the world, the fund crossed the $100,000 level in 2019. The Thomas H. Kunz Fund is now a permanently endowed fund at Boston University.<\/p>\n

As many of you know, Tom\u2019s research spanned from New England to the tropics. The Kunz Fund is helping our graduate students continue in BU\u2019s strong tradition of fieldwork across the globe. We welcome your help in increasing the impact of the Kunz Fund as we work to train the next generation of ecologists. Feel free to share this with family, friends and colleagues who might be interested.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Tom’s legacy, we recommend this article written by former students.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

2026 Thomas H. Kunz Fund in Biology Award Winner - Jordan Smith<\/h3>
<\/p>\n

\"\"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.<\/p>\n

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<\/h5>\n

Previous Kunz Fund Award Winners<\/h3>

\n2025 Isabel Novick<\/a>
\n2024 Abigail Robinson<\/a>
\n2023 Stephen Caron<\/a>
\n2022 Maria Jose Salazar Nicholls<\/a>
\n2021 Brandon G\u00fcell<\/a>
\n2020 Robin Francis<\/a>
\n2019 Javier Mendez Narvaez
\n2018 Rebecca Branconi
\n2017 Stephen Decina
\n2015 & 2016 Jesse Delia
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/h5>\n

Make a Contribution<\/h3>

\nTo contribute to the Thomas H. Kunz Fund in Biology, you can send a check made out to “Boston University” to our Biology Department address<\/a> or you can\u00a0click here<\/a> to make an online contribution.<\/p>\n

Please see the BU Alumni page for information on\u00a0other ways to give.<\/a><\/p>\n

Please feel free to\u00a0contact us<\/a> with questions or simply to let us know that you\u2019ve made a contribution \u2013 it would be great to hear from you.
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Make a donation to the Kunz Fund One of the world\u2019s leading authorities on the biology of bats, Professor Thomas H. Kunz, was for over forty years an inspiring teacher to thousands of undergraduates, an enthusiastic proponent for bats and science in the public arena, and an exceptional mentor to dozens of graduate students, post-doctoral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11177,"featured_media":0,"parent":4410,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3096"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23151,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3096\/revisions\/23151"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}