What Kills the Buzz in the Meadow? Understanding bee pollinator health and declines.
Mennonite Church of Normal, 805 S Cottage Ave, Normal, IL, 61761 Map
Live Stream Available
Public Welcome Limited Access Recording Free Event Program/Speaker Presentation Wheelchair Accessible Public Restroom Free Public Parking Drinking Fountains
Note: This program will also be live-streamed. Please use this link to join the livestream https://youtube.com/live/mCZbRQn9M2I .
In recent decades, there has been a worrying decline of many insect pollinators, which provide critical services to natural and agricultural ecosystems. This presentation will highlight the importance of the over 4,000 native bee species of North America, showing bees are much more than just honeybees. The proposed threats to bee pollinator health, and hence the services they provide, will then be discussed. We will finish with some potential ways that we can help. Following a question-and-answer session, the program will conclude with a tour of a colony of a native bumble bee and its inhabitants, along with the availability of printed information on native bees and their conservation.
About the speaker:
Dr. Ben Sadd is currently an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Ecology in the School of Biological Sciences at Illinois State University, after joining ISU in the Fall of 2013. He received his M.Sc. from the University of Sheffield, U.K., in 2004 and his Ph.D. in 2008 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. Subsequently, he was a Postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a Junior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin, Germany, and returning to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology a Senior Research Associate. Ben is an evolutionary ecologist with a particular fascination with infectious diseases and what influences how an organism is able to defend itself against the threat of infection. He focuses on insects as a model system, and has studied bumble bee immunity, health, and disease since 2004. He has published over 60 peer reviewed papers in international journals, including a recent comprehensive review entitled, “Global Trends in Bumble Bee Health.” His work has been cited over 4,200 times. Since being at ISU, Ben has also received funding from the US Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. His research team at ISU is currently made up of 2 PhD students, 3 MS students, 4 undergraduates, and 2 post docs. Ben and his team believe that broad communication of science is critical, and regularly take part in outreach events, including with local schools and conservation organizations.