Biography

I am a classically trained entomologist, beginning with my teenage interests in collecting and rearing butterflies and moths with friends. That hobby was nurtured by the bug club kindly organized by state entomologist John Wilcox at the NYS Museum in Albany. After my undergraduate at the state environmental science and forestry school in Syracuse, NY, I moved to Lawrence Kansas in 1977 to study bees under Charles Michener. That wonderful experience set my career path, but for a 2-year postdoc segue with Ips bark beetles under Dave Wood at UC Berkeley.

In 1984 I joined the departments of zoology and entomology at Auburn University in Alabama, teaching chemical ecology, apiculture, bee biology and plant-animal interactions, while continuing research with bees, pollination and Ips. In 1998 I joined the USDA Bee Lab here in Logan Utah, retiring in 2019. I’ve studied pollination and compared pollinator efficacies for field crops, including blueberries, cranberries, squashes, alfalfa (for seed) and raspberries, as well as a dozen prevalent wildflowers of the Great Basin sought for commercial seed production and rehabilitation of the sagebrush-steppe.

The study of bees continues to be an endlessly fascinating addiction for me. Over the decades, I’ve befriended many other folks across the US and in other countries who are likewise drawn to native bees, pollination and field botany. They have proven to both delightful companions and creative thinkers, a fine community in which to be immersed. I am continuing work with Osmia bees and wild alkali bees In pollination, I am currently studying sex allocation, breeding biology and pollinators of the peculiar checker lily, Fritillaria atropurpurea, plus hummingbird pollination of scarlet runner bean.