Two members of BEEc, Laurence Packer and Sandra Rehan, were invited to the 2nd Australian Native Bee Conference in Brisbane, Queensland last week (Dec 5-7). The two researchers were welcomed as keynote speakers at the conference. Packer presented on native bee diversity and taxonomy, while Sandra spoke about social evolution and behavioural genetics in small […]

Dr. Laurence Packer, BEEc lead researcher and distinguished research professor at York University, has been awarded the Nature Inspiration Award! We shared this news on Twitter last month, but this is a noteworthy accomplishment! Congratulations Laurence!   Bee expert Laurence Packer receives Nature Inspiration Award

Amro Zayed (YorkU) and Leonard Foster (UBC) join a cross-nation team of researchers on a project to develop a new tool which will be used to assess and diagnose honey bee health. The aim of BeeCSI is to bring industrial modernization in the form of a new tool which will give a quick bee health […]

This morning, Toronto's official bee, 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘴, was featured in the Toronto Star. The bee first received its unofficial title in the Bees of Toronto book, part of the city's biodiversity series. The book was written and composed by members of our BEEc team (L. Packer, S. Dumesh, S. Colla, and A. Zayed) as well […]

PhD candidate Kathrine Odanaka and Dr. Sandra Rehan publish a paper on the effects of land use changes on the phylogenetic diversity of wild bees. Read more here.

Lab Tech Position, York University, Toronto, Canada The Zayed Lab (www.yorku.ca/zayedlab) in the Department of Biology, York University (Toronto, Canada), has a position available for a Lab Tech with expertise in insect molecular biology and genetics starting in Fall 2019. The successful candidate will participate in a pioneering project to improve the health of Canadian […]

CBC: What's that bug? How to identify any plant or animal with your smartphone. The CBC published an article today featuring our very own Bumblebee Watch, as well as iNaturalist and eButterfly. These apps and websites utilize the help of citizen scientists, with minimum to no training, to monitor and conserve species at risk. Equipped with […]

Recent news: BEEc researcher Sandra Rehan (with co-author M. A. Steffen) publishes a new article in Genes, Brain, and Behavior, studying brain gene expression and formation of social hierarchies in the social bee, Ceratina australensis. Full article available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gbb.12597 ** Dr. Sandra Rehan recently started her position at York University as Assistant Professor and is looking […]

Hot off the press: BEEc researcher Amro Zayed and PhD candidate Nadia Tsvetkov have a new publication out in the Journal of Experimental Biology on how group size affects learning and memory in honey bees. They found the group size did affect how bees respond to sugar rewards and how they learn to discriminate between sugar […]