Carmichael Lecture in Environmental Sciences to highlight state of bee health

Christina Grozinger is the Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State.

Without bees, humanity would be in trouble. We are seeing a decline in bees and other pollinators due to pesticides, habitat destruction and a variety of other stressors.

This year’s Wayne Carmichael Lecture in Environmental Sciences, “Predicting and Managing Bee Health in a Changing World,” is a way that Wright State University hopes to bring awareness to the stressors that can affect bees and other pollinators.

The lecture features Christina Grozinger, Ph.D., the Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State University.

Grozinger will present her lecture on Thursday, April 7, at 4 p.m. in 101 Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Before the lecture, the Wright State College of Science and Mathematics will recognize recipients of the West Rock Scholarship in Sustainability. The students who received the competitive scholarship will have their names and pictures on display before the lecture begins.

Don Cipollini, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and director of the Environmental Sciences Ph.D. Program at Wright State, said he is personally interested in the health of pollinators and is interested to hear Grozinger’s expert opinion on environmental effects on pollinators.

Cipollini said there is debate among scholars on the rate of decline among pollinators, as well as discussion on how a variety of stressors affect native bees relative to honeybees or other insects and animals that pollinate plants.

He said that the health of bees can affect everyone and he is looking forward to hearing an expert’s opinion on the current state of bee health.

“This isn’t just an issue for farmers, it’s an issue for everyone who eats food,” Cipollini said.

Grozinger is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Her studies on pollinator health evaluate the impacts of a variety of stressors and how bees can build resistance to stressors through management practices and environmental contexts, particularly by improving nutrition. Grozinger has received several awards for her research efforts.

Cipollini encourages anyone who is interested to attend Grozinger’s lecture.