The Animal Behavior Society has announced that Janice Moore, professor of biology in the College of Natural Sciences, has received the society’s 2016 Exemplar Award for her “long-term contribution in animal behavior.”

Moore’s lab explores the ecology and evolution of parasitic worms. These parasites can alter the behaviors of hosts in ways that at times enhance the transmission of the parasite; in other cases, host behavioral changes are part of host defenses against the parasite.

Forging a new field

Moore was among the first scientists to investigate the influence of such parasites and pathogens on behavior. In 2002, she published a book with Oxford University Press, Parasites and the Behavior of Animals, to address a persistent knowledge gap in how parasites, animal behavior and ecology intersect.

As a testament to how unusual her work was at the time, Moore enrolled in not one, but two Ph.D. programs before she found a third, in the lab of Donald Duszynski (CSU M.S. ’68 zoology, Ph.D. ’70 zoology) at the University of New Mexico, that allowed her to pursue her interests. She received her Ph.D. in 1981.

The field of disease ecology/evolution is now “much more fashionable,” Moore says.

Papers, textbooks

In addition to numerous scientific papers, Moore has co-authored a textbook, Animal Behavior, published by Academic Press of Elsevier, now in its second edition. She was also co-executive editor of The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, also published by Elsevier.

Moore will be honored at the Animal Behavior Society annual meeting, July 30-Aug. 3.