IUSSI-NAS

Eusocial greetings to you. We are happy to announce that the long-awaited African Section of the IUSSI is about to be re-launched. Currently, we have social insect researchers from 10 African countries who are very enthusiastic to provide a strong African voice to the IUSSI.

The online inauguration symposium of our section will take place on November 25^th (CAT 10:00 am – 6:30 pm) and we are looking forward to a lively symposium.

Please find more information here: https://africaniussi.wordpress.com/

We are eagerly awaiting fruitful discussions and new collaborations with members of the other sections latest at the international IUSSI congress in San Diego!

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us through our africaniussi@up.ac.za email.

Many greetings on behalf of the African IUSSI,

Robin Crewe, Yusuf Abdullahi, Christian Pirk and Anja Buttstedt

The honey bee lab (www.yorku.ca/zayedlab) at York University’s Dept. of Biology (Toronto, Canada) has several positions available starting Fall of 2021. Projects include:

1) Ecological genomics and pollinator health: BeeCSI (https://beecsi.ca/) is a Canada-wide research project that aims to identify stressor specific biomarkers for use in pollination conservation and management. We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow with experience in transcriptomics and interest in bee biology to participate in both wet-lab and bioinformatic components of this research.

2) Comparative population genomics of eusocial insects: We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow to study the relationship between genome evolution and social evolution using population genomic datasets on a large number of insects that vary in their social organization.

Starting Salary: $55,000 per year

Qualified candidates are encouraged to submit their CV to Amro Zayed (honeybee@yorku.ca).

In addition to the honey bee lab, York University is home to the Center for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (BEEc, https://bees.yorku.ca). Successful candidates will have a chance to interact with the diverse faculty, fellows and students at BEEc, and participate in BEEc activities and training initiatives.

The Apiculture and Pollination lab at the University of Lethbridge is seeking applicants interested in honey bee research to join our team in January or May 2022. Funding is available for an MSc and a postdoctoral position in the Department of Biological Sciences. The graduate student and postdoctoral scholar will work under the supervision of Dr. Shelley Hoover, with other students, technical staff, and collaborators. The program has over 100 research colonies in apiaries on campus and in nearby agricultural settings.

Ryan Fortune is a graduate student in Amy Toth’s lab at Iowa State University. He is broadly interested in behavior, evolution, and genetics in social insects, but his current focus is on the genetics of nest building behavior. He also has a part time job in the summer months cleaning up hair from his dog Hamilton.

Kate Hunter is a PhD candidate at Utah State University in the lab of Dr. Karen Kapheim. She is studying the interactions between life history trait investment and social behavior in bees. She has spent time investigating the mechanisms of trait investment in the flexibly social Megalopta genalis, the solitary Nomia melanderi, and in this project is expanding to studying the bees across the range of social behavior found in Logan, UT with a primary focus on investment into the immune response.

Zach Balzer is a PhD student at Western University studying the invasive populations of
Reticulitermes flavipes in Ontario, Canada. The main goal of his research is to determine how bottleneck effects impact invasive populations by comparing the behavioral and genetic changes of these populations to native populations. Before beginning his work on termites, Zach received a BSc and MSc from the University of Saskatchewan studying the life history of Stylops (Strepsiptera) and the anatomical impact these parasites have on their mining bee hosts (Andrena).

Phoebe is a graduate student in Dr. Corrie Moreau’s lab at Cornell University, where she is studying how the optimal investment of ant colonies in defense changes over colony ontogeny. Her past research has been primarily with social insects, including ants, honey bees, and bumble bees.