Marla Spivak

Marla Spivak (born 1955) is an American entomologist, and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota specializing in apiculture and social insects.^[8]

Marla Spivak
Born	1955 (age 68–69) Denver, Colorado^[6]
Alma mater	California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, University of Kansas
Known for	Bee research^[7]
Awards	MacArthur Fellowship, Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture, Women of Discovery Award, Fellow of the Entomological Society of America,^[1] 2003 Hambleton Award from the Eastern Apicultural Society^[2]
Scientific career
Fields	entomology
Institutions	University of Minnesota
Doctoral advisor	Dr. Orley (Chip) Taylor^[3]^[4]
Other academic advisors	Dr. Gloria Degrandi-Hoffman and Dr. Martha Gilliam^[5]
Website	beelab.umn.edu

Career and research

Spivak graduated with a B.A. from Humboldt State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.^[9][10] 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.^[11][12] She was instrumental in setting up the first bee Tech-Transfer Team in the United States,^[13][14] which continues to help honey bee queen breeders select for disease resistance traits.^[15] More recently, she has begun studying the role of resins, which bees collect and mix with wax to make propolis coatings on the inside of their hives, as an example of honey bee social immunity.^[16] Her lab also studies the effect of the surrounding landscape on the health and nutrition of both honey bees and native bees.^[17]

Awards

She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship grant in 2010 for her work with honey bees.^[18][19] After receiving the MacArthur grant, she started an organization called the Bee Squad, which works to help beekeepers and people in the Twin Cities community improve the health of bee pollinators.^[20][21] In 2015, she won the Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota AgriGrowth Council.^[22] 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^[23] and a Women of Discovery Award from Wings Worldquest, honoring her pioneering work promoting bee health and conservation.^[24] Spivak was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America in 2017.^[25] In 2020 a former student of Spivak's, bee taxonomist Joel Gardner, named a species of sweat bee Lasioglossum spivakae in her honor.^[26]

Works

• Spivak, M.; Reuter, G.S.; Minnesota Extension Service (2006). Successful Queen Rearing: Short Course. University of Minnesota.
• Spivak, M.; Reuter, G.S.; Minnesota Extension Service (2006). Honeybee Diseases and Pests. University of Minnesota, Department of Entomology and Minnesota Extension Service.
• Lee-Mäder, E.; Spivak, M.; Evans, E. (2010). Managing Alternative Pollinators: A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers, and Conservationists. NRAES (Collection). Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. ISBN 978-1-933395-20-3.
• Spivak, M.; Fletcher, D.J.C.; Breed, M.D. (2019). The African Honey Bee. Westview studies in insect biology. Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-0-367-28999-7.

References

1. . Archived from the original on November 10, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
2. . Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
3. . Archived from the original on 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
4. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-07-13. Retrieved 2016-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. . Archived from the original on 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
6. . Archived from the original on 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
7. "Home". beelab.umn.edu.
8. . Archived from the original on 2014-08-25.
9. "Marla Spivak — MacArthur Foundation".
10. dalyx224 (2014-08-11). "Marla Spivak". Department of Entomology. Retrieved 2019-03-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
11. Spivak, Marla (December 2008). "The Future of the MN Hygienic Stock of Bees is in Good Hands!". American Bee Journal. 149 (10): 965–967. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
12. Spivak, Marla. "The Future of the MN Hygienic Stock of Bees is in Good Hands!". ResearchGate. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
13. McNeil, M.E.A. (September 2010). (PDF). American Bee Journal. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-08. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
14. Lee, Katie (June 2011). . Bee Informed Partnership Blog. Archived from the original on 2020-11-29. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
15. "Tech Teams - Bee Informed Partnership".
16. Spivak, Marla (March 2013). "The Benefits of Propolis" (PDF). Bee Craft Magazine. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
17. Miller, Kerri (April 1, 2013). "With hives in sharp decline, expert calls for bee-friendly flowers". MPR News. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
18. Ross, Jenna (September 28, 2010). "Buzz about U professor is 'genius'". Star Tribune. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
19. Horn, Tammy (November 1, 2011). Beeconomy: What Women and Bees Can Teach Us about Local Trade and the Global Market. University Press of Kentucky. p. 170. ISBN 9780813134369.
20. hvander (2015-01-27). "Bee Squad". Bee Lab. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
21. . Regents of the University of Minnesota. 2014. Archived from the original on 2013-04-14.
22. "Distinguished Service Award". AgriGrowth. 2016.
23. Anonymous (16 March 2016). "Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture announces 2016 laureates".
24. . WINGS WorldQuest. Archived from the original on 2016-09-01.
25. . Archived from the original on 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
26. Gardner and Gibbs (December 2020). "The 'red-tailed' Lasioglossum (Dialictus) (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) of the western Nearctic". European Journal of Taxonomy (725): 1–242. doi:10.5852/ejt.2020.725.1167. S2CID 229449584. Retrieved December 6, 2020.

External links

External videos
Marla Spivak: Why bees are disappearing, TEDGlobal 2013

• Bee Lab at University of Minnesota
• "Marla Spivak: The Promised Land". American Public Media.
• TED Talk (Why bees are disappearing)