If You're a Grad Student Doing Pollination Research at a California University...

If you're a graduate student engaged in pollinator-related research at a California university, it might pay to present your research poster at the third annual UC Davis Bee Symposium, set Sunday, May 7 in the UC Davis Conference Center.

Not only will you get to showcase your research, but you might share in the $2500 in cash awarded to the winners: first place, $1000; second place, $750; third, $500; and fourth, $250.

The poster competition is part of the all-day informational symposium, themed "Keeping Bees Healthy,"  sponsored by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center, said participants in the research poster competition must register by April 10 (see submission form at http://honey.ucdavis.edu/events/copy_of_GraduatestudentposterSubmission2017.pdf and be present to defend their work before a panel of judges. They will receive complementary registration.

Last year UC Berkeley graduate students Sara Winsemius and Laura Ward won the poster competition with their research on "Exploring Potential Route of Neonicotinoid Exposure within Pollinator Hedgerows Adjacent to Seed-Treated Sunflower."

Other 2016 winners were:

• Second place of $750 went to UC Davis graduate student W. Cameron Jasper for his poster, "Investigating Potential Synergistic Effects of Chronic Exposure to Amitraz and Multiple Pesticides on Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Survivorship."
• Third place of $500 went to UC Davis graduate student Britney Goodrich for her poster on "Honey Bee Health: Economic Implications for Beekeepers in Almond Pollination."
• Fourth place of $250 went to UC Davis graduate student John Mola for his poster on "Fine Scale Population Genetics and Movement Ecology of the Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee (Bombus vosnesenkii).

Judges were a trio of entomologists: Dennis vanEnglesdorp, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park; Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis; and Quinn McFrederick, assistant professor of entomology, UC Riverside.

General registration for the 2017 Bee Symposium begins Wednesday, March 1 at http://honey.ucdavis.edu/events/2017-bee-symposium. Open to all interested persons, the symposium is designed for beekeepers of all experience levels, including gardeners, farmers and anyone interested in the world of pollination and bees. The event will include speakers, displays of graduate student research posters, the latest in beekeeping equipment, books, honey, plants, "and much more," Harris said.

This year's keynote speaker is Steve Sheppard, Thurber Professor of Apiculture and chair of the Department of Entomology, Washington State University, Pullman, Wash. Sheppard specializes in population genetics and evolution of honey bees, insect introductions and mechanisms of genetic differentiation. He also heads the Apis Molecular Systematics Laboratory.

Among the other speakers:

• Santiago Ramirez of the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology;
• Extension apiculturist Elina Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology;
• Maj Rundlöf of the Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden, and
• Margaret Lombard, National Honey Board, based in Firestone, Colo.

The day before the symposium--Saturday, May 6--is the inaugural California Honey Festival in downtown Woodland. Coordinated by the Honey and Pollination Center and is free and open to the public.

For more information on the events, contact Amina Harris at aharris@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-9301.