Marla and the Bees

Marla Spivak is an entomologist who is developing practical applications to protect honey bee populations from decimation by disease while making fundamental contributions to our understanding of bee biology. - See more at: http://www.macfound.org/fellows/43/#sthash.OCalKGKO.dpuf

Marla Spivak is an entomologist who is developing practical applications to protect honey bee populations from decimation by disease while making fundamental contributions to our understanding of bee biology. - See more at: http://www.macfound.org/fellows/43/#sthash.OCalKGKO.dpuf

Marla Spivak researches bees’ behavior and biology in an effort to preserve this threatened, but ecologically essential, insect.

Why we should listen -- Bees pollinate a third of our food supply -- they don’t just make honey! -- but colonies have been disappearing at alarming rates in many parts of the world due to the accumulated effects of parasitic mites, viral and bacterial diseases, and exposure to pesticides and herbicides. Marla Spivak, University of Minnesota professor of entomology and 2010 MacArthur Fellow, tries as much as possible to think like bees in her work to protect them. They’re “highly social and complex” creatures, she says, which fuels her interest and her research.