biology

Jennifer E. Smith (biologist)

Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) rather than just read about it. In short: Jennifer Elaine Smith (Jenn Smith) is a behavioral ecologist and evolutionary biologist. She is a professor of biology at University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

Key takeaways

Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jennifer Elaine Smith (Jenn Smith) is a behavioral ecologist and evolutionary biologist. She is a professor of biology at University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. Previously, she was an associate professor and chair of biology at Mills College, in Oakland, California, before 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. She holds a B.A. in biology with a concentration in environmental science from Colby College and an M.S. in integrative biology from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She went on to complete dual PhDs in zoology and the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (EEB) Program at Michigan State University. Her dissertation research with Kay E. Holekamp involved extensive fieldwork in Kenya and focused on the evolutionary and ecological forces shaping patterns of cooperation among spotted hyenas Before joining the faculty at Mills College, she was an American Association of University Women postdoctoral fellow with Daniel T. Blumstein 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.

Awards and academic honors Smith was elected as a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society in 2026 [] and received the Penny Bernstein Distinguished Teaching Award from the Animal Behavior Society in 2017. Other awards bestowed upon Smith include several other teaching awards, including one from Phi Beta Kappa. She also received fellowships from the American Society of University Women and from the P.E.O. Sisterhood International.

Research contributions Smith is known for her contributions to our understanding of sociality in free-living mammals. Among her most prominent contributions are those focused on animal social networks, comparative social evolution, the fission-fusion society of and coalition formation in spotted hyenas, leadership in mammalian societies, explaining large-scale patterns of collective animal behavior, intergroup conflict, and intragroup coalitions across mammalian societies. Since 2013, she has managed her own Long-term Study on the Behavioral Ecology of the California ground squirrel 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, carnivory, and social networks in a changing world. More broadly, Smith also applies comparative approaches to understand patterns of (in)equality, cooperation, and leadership in social mammals.

References

External links Smith Behavioral Ecology Lab

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jennifer E. Smith (biologist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jennifer E. Smith (biologist)

In research: Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Colby College alumni, Ethologists, Evolutionary biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) in simple terms?

Jennifer Elaine Smith (Jenn Smith) is a behavioral ecologist and evolutionary biologist. She is a professor of biology at University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

Why does Jennifer E. Smith (biologist) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jennifer E. Smith (biologist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jennifer E. Smith (biologist).