News
Michael Freiberg recently graduated with a BSc and MSc from the Department of Entomology. He visited the University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil, in May and June of 2011, with support from the College of Agricultural Sciences International Office.
Lecture by Christina Grozinger in the 2012 Penn State Frontiers in Science lecture series, is now available online
The Penn State Department of Entomology is seeking undergraduate student applicants for the Dutch Gold Honey Scholarship for honey bee research.
We will be hosting our second annual Queen Rearing Workshop at Penn State from June 2-3, 2012.
The symposium will be held on May 21, 2012, and will feature presentations from Center members and regional collaborators from the NE IPM Center Pollinator Working Group. Topics will include basic and applied research, extension and outreach related to pollinators.
In 2010, honey distributor Dutch Gold Honey and William and Kitty Gamber, of Lancaster, Pa., each contributed $50,000 to endow a fund to support undergraduate research in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
In the summer 2010, three organizations committed to honey bee and pollinator health, the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association (PSBA), the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) and Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research (CPR), created a new research fund to support applied research projects which would directly benefit beekeepers. The PA Pollinator Research Program received $10,000 from each organization. Furthermore, the Montgomery County Beekeepers, recognizing the potential benefit of the program, contributed to the fund and urged other small associations to donate as well.
This past summer the Eastern Apiculture Society (EAS) announced the recipients of its annual awards and two of Penn State’s own were honored. Maryann Frazier was presented with the Roger Morse Award for Extension, Education, and Regulation and Elina Lastro Niño was the recipient of the EAS Student Award.
An investigation into pesticides and possible new effects on honeybees.
Alex Surcica, an extension educator in Penn State's Franklin County Cooperative Extension Office and the Center for Polllinator Research, is developing a guide to Pennsylvania bees, wasps and other beneficial insects.
On August 12, 2011, more than eighty people gathered for the annual Friends and Founders Event at the Arboretum at Penn State. The focus of the evening was the importance of pollinators and the contribution the Arboretum's Pollinator Gardens are making in disseminating the research, education and outreach programs of the faculty of Penn State's Center for Pollinator Research. Both people and pollinators showed their appreciation of the many species of flowering plants during the post-discussion tour of the gardens.
A community celebration and special dedication of the Snetsinger Butterfly Garden at Tom Tudek Memorial Park hosted by Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Centre County with “Butterfly Bob” Snetsinger, The Tudek Trust, Ferguson Township, and Centre Region Parks and Recreation. Date: July 23, 2011 Time: 10am-2pm, Special Dedication at 10:30am.
Penn State's Department of Entomology and Center for Pollinator Research are hosting the "International Symposium on Functional Genomic Tools in Honey Bees". The symposium will feature 22 speakers from 8 countries, who will discuss recent advances in using genomic tools to study epigenetics, social behavior and polyphenisms in honey bees and other social insects.
On May 28-29th, 2011, twelve beekeepers from around Pennsylvania gathered at Penn State to attend the first annual Queen Rearing Workshop. The course participants learned about honey bee queen biology, honey bee mating behavior, swarming behavior, parasites, and of course, the practicalities of rearing queens in Pennsylvania and breeding for strains of bees with desirable traits. The workshop included several hands-on experiences to learn different methods for queen rearing and stock evaluation, including testing for hygienic behavior, Varroa mite and Nosema microsporidia loads. An extremely valuable aspect of the course were the discussions, where the beekeepers shared their experiences and strategies. The course instructors (Christina Grozinger, Maryann Frazier, Warren Miller, Elina Lastro Nino, Bernardo Nino, Holly Holt, Jessica Richards and Gabe Villar) learned as much as the participants! Special thanks to Harland Patch for the t-shirt design. For more information and photos from the workshop, please see the following blog from Joe DeLuca, a participant in the course:
A nationwide network to monitor and maintain honeybee health is the aim of the Bee Informed Partnership, a five-year, $5 million program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and led by Penn State.
Over 100 researchers from 15 countries gathered at the 2011 Honey Bee Genomics & Biology conference at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in May 2011. The conference showcased the great strides the honey bee community has made in understanding the molecular bases of many complex social behaviors and phenotypic traits, and the evolution of these traits, with the use of the sequenced honey bee genome. The conference was organized by Christina Grozinger (Penn State University), Uli Mueller (Saarland University, Germany) and Rob Page (Arizona State University). Further coverage of the conference is provided by Gwyneth Dickey Zakaig, Nature News:
The Stream magazine seeks to illuminate the efforts, people, interactions and IT driving discovery at Penn State. Our focus for this month's issue is "Green IT."
We are pleased to announce a new training opportunity for graduate students and postdocs. This is a practical and theoretical course in honey bee RNA interference technology, to be held at Penn State University and the University of Life Sciences – Norway. The course is sponsored by the Research Council of Norway. This support covers registration fees, materials and supplies, local accommodations, lunch/coffee breaks, and provides all attendants with stipends to put toward their travel costs.
Josh Hibit, a senior Agricultural Sciences, was awarded the first place (undergraduate division) at the 17th Annual Agricultural Research Expo sponsored by the Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Society for Agricultural Science on March 16, 2011.
Alex Surcica and Christina Grozinger recently received funding from the Northeastern IPM Center to establish a NE Pollinator IPM Working Group. This group will consist of 10-15 researchers, growers, industry representatives, and extension specialists, who will discuss critical needs for promoting pollinator health and ecosystems services in the Northeast region. Those needs will then be communicated to the NE IPM Center in order to establish future priority areas for funding. Current members of this Working Group are as follows:
