The goal of the Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (BEEc)’s Speaker Series is to provide opportunities for BEEc associates and invited guests to learn from each other. We are pleased to announce that starting Fall 2024, this series will be open to the public. If you miss the live webinar, we often are able to record presentations for others to view – please see below for those recordings, or subscribe to our YouTube Channel to receive the most up-to-date notifications on new recordings!
At 11am Eastern Time, on the second or third Friday of every month, we will feature a different topic related to bees. These will be presented through the Zoom webinar platform, you will need to register individually for each webinar in the series
Upcoming Talks:
September 13th, 2024
Dr. Adam Dolezal
Associate Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Adam is an Associate Professor and Centennial Bee Research Professorial Scholar in the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign’s Department of Entomology. He completed his PhD at Arizona State University, followed by postdoctoral work at Iowa State University. His laboratory researches how pollinators (mostly bees), respond to the different stresses they encounter in their environment. These studies have centered heavily around the impacts of virus infection and nutritional and chemical stresses associated with Midwestern row-crop agricultural systems, and he is interested in research that bridges basic biology and practical beekeeping.
Please join us for his talk: Teasing apart stressor interactions in honey bee workers and queens: Nothing is ever easy in September!
Register here
October 11th, 2024
Dr. Laura Figueroa
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Conservation. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dr. Figueroa is an ecologist and entomologist who is passionate about biodiversity and sustainability. She aim to leverage science to gain a greater understanding of pressing environmental stressors and contribute to evidence-based solutions. She has worked in pollinator disease ecology, tropical ecology, climate change, and human-mediated invasive species spread. Currently, her lab works primarily with bees and other pollinating arthropods.
Please join us for her talk: The fascinating world of bees: from novel monitoring tools to landscape-level stressors in October!
Register here
November 8th, 2024
Dr. Matthew Betti
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. Mount Allison University
Dr. Matthew Betti
Matthew Betti is an associate professor of math and computer science at Mount Allison University. His research focuses on the mathematics of disease transmission and mathematical modeling of ecological processes.
Please join us for his talk: The Calculus of Honey Bees in November!
Register here
December 13th, 2024
Dr. Christopher Starr
Professor Emeritus, Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago
Dr. Christopher Starr
Christopher K. Starr was born in Ontario in 1949, but he has spent most of his adult life in the subtropics and tropics of the New World and East Asia. Most recently he was Professor of Entomology at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. His core scholarly attention is to the behavioural ecology and systematics of social insects, most particularly social wasps. At the same time, he has serious auxiliary interests in arachnids and the history of biology. Now 10 years into retirement, he does as he pleases, which is mostly the study of social insects.
Please join us for his talk: Jan Dzierżon’s Revolution in Honey-Bee Biology in December!
Register here
Join our Public “Bees” ListServ!
Looking to stay informed on BEEc’s public news, general, research activities and events? Send an email to LISTSERV@YORKU.CA with the following command in the body of the email:
SUBSCRIBE BEES YourFirstName YourLastName
Join our Internal “BEEC-Associates” ListServ!
Are you on our Internal BEEc Associates Listserv? This list is used for sharing our newsletters, upcoming events and opportunities. If you are not a Member of BEEc already, please fill out the Associates Application form at https://www.yorku.ca/bees/about-us/membership/application/. Already a member? Contact beec@yorku.ca.
Scroll down for Past Presentations, Videos of Selected Presentations
Keep scrolling down the page to see the list of past presentations and recordings (where permissions were given for public posting). Or visit our YouTube Channel to see the recordings from all our speaker series, webinars, conferences.
Past events:
2023-2024 Speaker Series Events
2022-2023 Speaker Series Events
September 16, 2022: Systems biology of complex phenotypes, with Dr. Syed Abbas Bukhari (No Recording Available)
October 21, 2022: Evolution of sociality and parental care in Ceratina bees, with Dr. Michael Mikát
November 18, 2022: Honey bee exposure to multi-stressor landscapes, with Dr. Sarah French (No Recording Available)
December 16, 2022: Metagenomics and metatranscriptomics of small carpenter bees (Ceratina calcarata), with Dr. Katherine Chau
January 13, 2023: The Evolution of Bee Brood Parasitism, with Dr. Trevor Sless
February 17, 2023: Effects of dune stabilization on bees and aculeate wasps in the southern Canadian prairies, with Dr. Tom Onuferko
March 17, 2023: The evolution of protein soup in male ejaculate, with Dr. Bahar Patlar. (Note: recording will not be made public until results discussed are published).
April 14, 2023: Solutions for Farmers and Food for Bees : From knowledge on bee nutrition to actions promoting bee conservation, with Dr. Mathilde Tissier
2021-2022 Speaker Series Events
The talks below were those where the speakers gave us permission to record and share their presentations. We thank the other speakers who shared their knowledge with us as well.
April 1, 2022: Rare Plants in Southern Ontario’s Woodlands: Where Are They, What Limits Them and Who Pollinates Them?
with Dr. Jenny McCune, Assistant Professor, University of Lethbridge – view the poster
March 4, 2022: The Role of Heterogeneity in supporting Wild Bee Biodiversity in Canadian Agroecosystems
with Dr. Jess Vickruck, Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – view the poster
Dec 3, 2021: Recommendations for Canada’s First National Pollinator Strategy
with Dr. Rachel Napela, York University – view the poster
Nov 5, 2021: Bees, Math, & Collaborations
with Drs. Jane Heffernan and Amro Zayed, York University – view the poster
Oct 1, 2021: Early Insecticide Controversies and Beekeeper Advocacy in the Great Lakes Region
with Dr. Jennifer Bonnell, York University – view the poster
Summer 2021 – Beyond the Buzz: Examining Bees Through an Interdisciplinary Lens
Bees, People, Science & Others
- July 9, 2021 with Kathleen Law, Pollinator Partnership Canada, and Dr. Clement Kent, York University – view the poster
Bees, Land & Food Justice
- June 4, 2021 with Dr. Sheila Colla, York University, Adrianne Lickers Xavier, McMaster University, Dr. Sarah Rotz, York University – view the poster