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 […]
News and Blog
Nature Inspiration Award to Dr. Laurence Packer!
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
Launch of BeeCSI nation-wide honey bee genome project
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 […]
Toronto's Official Bee, ๐๐จ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ท๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด and Pollinate TO
This morning, Toronto's official bee, ๐๐จ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ท๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด, 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 […]
New article published by the Rehan lab
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.
Job Posting: Lab Technician (Zayed Lab, YorkU)
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 […]
What's That Bug? Use your smartphone to find out!
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 asย 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 […]
New research article on genetic factors attributing to social hierarchies in bees
Recent news: BEEc researcher Sandra Rehan (with co-author M. A. Steffen) publishes a new article in Genes, Brain, and Behavior, studyingย brain gene expression and formation of social hierarchies in the social bee, Ceratinaย 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 […]
BEEc researchers publish new study on how social isolation affects learning in bees
Hot off the press: BEEc researcher Amro Zayed and PhD candidate Nadia Tsvetkov have a new publication out in the Journal of Experimental Biologyย 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 […]
BeeCon 2019 - Registration and Abstract submission open!
BEEc is happy to announce that the registration and abstract submission for BeeCon 2019, to held at York University on August 26th 2019 has opened. Click here to register and submit abstracts! Our Keynote speaker for BeeCON 2019 will be Dr. Ricardo Ayala Barajas from the Universidad Nacional Autรณnoma de Mรฉxico!