Rate My Professor Jenny Jandt

Dr Jennifer Jandt earned her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona in 2010. She joined the University of Otago in 2016 as a Lecturer and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in the Department of Zoology within the Division of Sciences in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her research focuses on the behavioural ecology and evolution of social insects, exploring the development and function of personality differences at individual and colony levels. She investigates mechanisms facilitating the evolutionary shift from solitary to social behaviour in Vespid wasps, environmental influences such as climate on the development and performance of bees and wasps, biology, invasiveness, and population structures of the German yellowjacket, and group behavioural patterns applied to swarm robotics. Jandt leads the Jandt Lab, conducting studies on pollinator foraging behaviour in collaboration with botanists to assess floral diversity's impact on bee health and pollination efficacy, wasp colony aggressive responses to disturbance, and citizen science for distinguishing bees from other insects.

In teaching, she delivers BIOL 112 Animal Biology, ZOOL 314 Neurobiology, ZOOL 315 Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology, ZOOL 411 Evaluating Trends and Controversies in Ecology and Evolution, and ZOOL 422 Advanced Topics in Animal Behaviour. Key publications include "Preference and performance of Pūrerehua Kahukura (Vanessa gonerilla gonerilla) on native and introduced nettles of Aotearoa" (2025, New Zealand Journal of Ecology), "Body and mandible size as key factors in male contest outcomes, but no evidence of assessment models in Helm’s stag beetles" (2025, New Zealand Journal of Zoology), "The impact of floral diversity on bumblebee colony development and pollination efficacy among foragers" (2025, Apidologie), "Weapon allometry and shape variation in the Helm's stag beetle (Geodorcus helmsi)" (2025, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society), and earlier works such as "Behavioural syndromes and social insects: Personality at multiple levels" (2014). With approximately 1,800 citations on Google Scholar, her contributions have influenced social insect ecology and behavioural evolution. She serves as Pacific Islands Liaison for the Zoology Department, Editor-in-chief of New Zealand Entomologist, and media expert on social insects, featured in RNZ and Otago Magazine.