Jordan has been awarded the Royal Entomological Society’s Alfred Russel Wallace Award for his PhD thesis, submitted in 2020! The award is for post-graduates who have been awarded a PhD, and whose work is considered by their supervisory team to be outstanding. The research involved should be a significant contribution to the science of entomology.
The award is named after Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), one of history’s most renowned naturalists, who worked closely with Charles Darwin, though is far less widely known. Wallace and Darwin together proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858, laying the foundations for much of our understanding of ecology, biology and the natural world. You can read more about Wallace’s life and work at the Alfred Russel Wallace Website.
Jordan’s thesis, titled “Nutrient-specific foraging and the role of spiders as biocontrol agents”, was completed at Cardiff University under the supervision of Bill Symondson, Ian Vaughan, James Bell, Carsten Muller and Pablo Orozco-terWengel, and is available to read via Cardiff University’s online repository. Bill, Jordan’s primary supervisor, sadly passed away a couple of years ago, but wrote a touching nomination for the award.
Jordan has published a few papers directly arising from his thesis, including a protocol for macronutrient analysis of invertebrates, an analysis of the impact of harvest on money spider interactions, an analysis of spider trophic interactions and biocontrol, an analysis of weather as a driver of spider interactions and an analysis of nutrients as a driver of spider interactions. Much of FERG’s research either builds upon or is otherwise influenced by the work in Jordan’s thesis, from protocols and statistical analyses to concepts and preliminary data, so it’s great to see those foundations recognised with such an excellent award.
Foraging Ecology Research Group 
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