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Professor Marla Spivak heads the Spivak Lab at the University of Minnesota. https://beelab.umn.edu/spivak- lab
Bees fascinate her, and one word that comes to her mind when she thinks of bees is “INTERESTING”!
Why Interesting? According to Professor Spivak, it is fascinating to see how self-organized these social insects are and how their sophisticated societies work “without a central authority or a government”.
Her work is mainly focused on honeybees. For example, one of her research areas is understanding social immunity, the way such “social insects defend themselves against parasites and pathogens” and keep themselves healthy. As we know, disease transmission can happen very easily since they live in dense colonies. One of her papers with her former student (Dr. Mike Goblirsch) studied one form of social immunity, which is ‘social fever’ where the colony spikes a fever (temperature in the colony rises) in response to their immune system fighting a disease. Some of her current projects are focused on bee breeding, and hygienic behavior. Interestingly, Professor Spivak mentions hygienic behavior as another form of social immunity and how adult bees can sniff out diseased larvae and pupae from their nest and throw them out to protect their colonies!
Professor Spivak urges us to peek at the bees, as they provide a window into bigger environmental issues. After all, “the habitat of bees is all that humanity needs more of.” For example, all the floral resources they need, basically are all those flowers that help our planet.
She also mentions if you are scared of bees, it is “a healthy fear”. Do remember, bees react in response to disturbance to their nests in defense. Professor further comments, “A bee foraging on a flower is too busy to sting you.”
If you are interested in bees, beekeeping, and bee-related research Professor Spivak has a lot of suggestions to offer.
Engaging in Bee Research….Volunteer in Labs or Apply for Summer Programs
If you would like to start working on bee-related research projects, Professor Spivak suggests you explore high school research opportunities/internships/ programs in local universities. This will give you a great opportunity to learn how to conduct research, under the guidance of an expert mentor. So, listen to Professor Spivak and “scout around for universities that have high school summer research programs”, or look for volunteer opportunities at Bee-research labs near you. Few high schoolers have worked in her lab in the past.
Based on her suggestions I started looking and surprisingly found so many programs. Here are a few university research programs I found:
Engaging in Beekeeping…
If you would like to start beekeeping, Professor Spivak suggests shadowing a local beekeeper for a season to understand the process itself and the biology of bees before you start your hive. For example, Minnesota has a youth sponsorship program where interested beginners get a hive and a mentor. She suggests “look up hobby beekeeping association or beekeeping association and see what they offer.”
Thank you, Professor Spivak, for your wonderful suggestions!
In fact, based on her recommendation I looked up some mentorship opportunities for beginner beekeepers, and here are some relevant links in the CT area:
I hope to visit HuneeBee Project and post about it soon!
Once again, thank you Professor Spivak for talking to me despite your busy schedule!
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