Judith Smit is a NOMIS–STRI Fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Gamboa, Panama.

Smit is a biologist with a fascination for understanding animal behavior, particularly the complexities of their communication systems. She is passionate about designing and conducting behavioral experiments to explore how animals adapt their behavior to changing environments. During her bachelor’s and master’s studies in behavioral ecology at Utrecht University in her home country of the Netherlands, Smit worked with birds and frogs, setting the foundation for her future research. She completed her PhD in 2024 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she investigated how urbanization affects sexual communication in túngara frogs. Her PhD research involved extensive fieldwork and behavioral experiments conducted at STRI in Panama.

In her postdoctoral work, Smit is expanding her focus on animal communication, a critical aspect of reproduction, by shifting her attention to insects. Many insects rely on vibrational signals to attract and locate mates — a form of communication that remains poorly understood due to its imperceptibility to humans. Her research centers on vibrational duetting in tropical treehoppers and aims to understand how males and females adjust their behaviors in response to one another. Using innovative technologies for recording and playing back vibrations, Smit seeks to illuminate this hidden mode of communication and contribute to the broader understanding of animal communication and the remarkable diversity of life in tropical ecosystems.

Feature image by Rudy Gelis