Marla Spivak (born 1955) is an American

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

, and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

specializing in

apiculture Beekeeping (or apiculture, from ) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. Honey bees in the genus ''Apis (bee), Apis'' are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as ''Melipona'' stingless be ...

and social insects.

Career and research

Spivak graduated with a B.A. from

Humboldt State University California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt or Humboldt) is a public university in Arcata, California. It is one of Cal Poly (disambiguation), three polytechnic universities in the California State University (CSU) sys ...

and a Ph.D. from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

. She is particularly well known for her work breeding lines of honey bees that detect and quickly remove diseased larvae and pupae, which is called hygienic behavior. Spivak has extensively studied the causes and impacts of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a phenomenon where honey bee hives are abandoned by their worker bees. She attributes CCD to a combination of factors, including parasites, diseases, poor nutrition, pesticide poisonings, and habitat loss. Her research aims to identify stress factors that compromise bee immune systems and develop methods to mitigate these stresses. She was instrumental in setting up the first bee Tech-Transfer Team in the United States, which continues to help honey bee queen breeders select for disease resistance traits. More recently, she has begun studying the role of resins, which bees collect and mix with wax to make

propolis Propolis or bee glue is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the beehive. Pro ...

coatings on the inside of their hives, as an example of honey bee social immunity. Her lab also studies the effect of the surrounding landscape on the health and nutrition of both honey bees and native bees.

Awards

She was awarded a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

grant in 2010 for her work with

honey bees A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...

. After receiving the MacArthur grant, she started an organization called th
Bee Squad
which works to help beekeepers and people in the Twin Cities community improve the health of bee pollinators. In 2015, she won the Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota AgriGrowth Council. In 2016, she won the Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture (category: Knowledge) for her many contributions to understanding bee biology and threats to bee health and a Women of Discovery Award from Wings Worldquest, honoring her pioneering work promoting bee health and conservation. Spivak was elected a Fellow of the

Entomological Society of America The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...

in 2017. In 2020 a former student of Spivak's, bee taxonomist Joel Gardner, named a species of sweat bee ''

Lasioglossum The sweat bee genus ''Lasioglossum'' is the largest of all bee genera, containing over 1800 species in numerous subgenera worldwide.Gibbs, J., et al. (2012)Phylogeny of halictine bees supports a shared origin of eusociality for ''Halictus'' an ...

spivakae'' in her honor.

Works

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References

External links

Bee Lab
at

*
TED Talk (Why bees are disappearing)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spivak, Marla 1955 births Living people University of Minnesota faculty MacArthur Fellows California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt alumni University of Kansas alumni American women entomologists Coleopterists