Jennifer Elaine Smith (Jenn Smith) is a behavioral ecologist and evolutionary biologist. She is an assistant professor of biology at

University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. Previously, she was an associate professor and chair of biology at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

, in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, prior to its merger with Northeastern University. Her research focuses primarily on the social lives of mammals based on insights gained from long-term studies on marked individuals and comparative approaches.

Early life and education

Smith was born in the small coastal town of

Cushing, Maine Cushing is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,502 at the 2020 census. A favorite of artists for its unspoiled natural setting, Cushing includes the villages of North Cushing, Cushing, South Cushing, and Pleasant ...

. She holds a B.A. in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

with a concentration in

environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

from

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...

and an M.S. in integrative biology from

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

. She went on to complete dual PhDs in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and ecology, evolutionary biology and behavior at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. Her dissertation research with Kay E. Holekamp involved extensive fieldwork in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and focused on the evolutionary and ecological forces shaping patterns of cooperation among spotted hyenas Before joining the faculty at

, she was an

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

postdoctoral fellow with

Daniel T. Blumstein Daniel T. Blumstein is an ethologist and conservation biologist. He is professor at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, as well as a professor for the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, at the University of California ...

at the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, as well as in the Institute for Society and Genetics, at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Work and academic contributions

Smith is known for her contributions to our understanding of

sociality Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

in free-living mammals. Among her most prominent contributions are those focused on animal social networks, comparative

social evolution {{unreferenced, date=February 2015 ''Social Evolution'' is the title of an essay by Benjamin Kidd, which became available as a book published by Macmillan and co London in 1894. In it, Kidd discusses the basis for society as an evolving phenomenon ...

, the fission-fusion society of and coalition formation in

spotted hyenas The spotted hyena (''Crocuta crocuta''), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus ''Crocuta'', native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUC ...

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...

in mammalian societies, explaining large-scale patterns of

collective animal behavior Collective animal behaviour is a form of social behavior involving the coordinated behavior of large groups of similar animals as well as emergent properties of these groups. This can include the costs and benefits of group membership, the tra ...

, intergroup conflict, and intragroup coalitions across mammalian societies. Since 2013, she has managed her own Long-term Study on the

Behavioral Ecology Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined four questions to address when ...

of the

California ground squirrel The California ground squirrel (''Otospermophilus beecheyi''), also known as the Beechey ground squirrel, is a common and easily observed ground squirrel of the western United States and the Baja California Peninsula; it is common in Oregon and ...

at Briones Regional Park. This project on marked individual ground squirrels is revealing new insights into the nexus among behavioral type (i.e., personality traits), stress physiology, parasite loads, microbial diversity, and social networks in a changing world. More broadly, Smith is also interested applying comparative approaches to understand patterns of (in)equality in nature.

References

External links

Smith Behavioral Ecology Lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Jennifer Elaine Evolutionary biologists Ethologists Living people Colby College alumni Michigan State University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire faculty Mills College faculty