{"id":1323,"date":"2021-02-09T11:41:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T16:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/bees\/?page_id=1323"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:47:11","slug":"executive-committee","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/bees\/about-us\/executive-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Executive Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BEEc is a network of interdisciplinary researchers with the purpose of pushing the limits in bee research, education, public outreach, and policy. Our work is guided by the Executive Committee, with expertise in bee genetics, ecology, systematics, biodiversity, conservation, evolution, behaviour and statistics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Sandra Rehan is an expert on social insect genomics and pollinator health combining molecular evolution, behavioural ecology, population genetics, and phylogenetics to understand sociobiology, biogeography, and nutritional requirements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Sandra Rehan, Principal Investigator, Director<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

快播视频\u2019s Tier 2 Research Chair in Molecular Ecology and Behavioural Genetics<\/strong>
Professor Biology Department, Faculty of Science<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Rehan\u2019s research focuses on bee biodiversity and social evolution. She recently was awarded the prestigious NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship for her research in bee genomics, molecular ecology and behavioural genetics and was inducted as a Fellow in the Linnean Society of London. With a special interest in the origin and maintenance of social behaviour in bees, her lab has three main foci: molecular phylogeny, behavioural ecology, and comparative genomics. Employing these three levels of biological integration to study bees at multiple evolutionary scales, research in the lab ranges from natural history and taxonomy to molecular phylogenetics and biogeography. Dr. Rehan uses comparative genomics to uncover the genetic basis of group formation and transcriptomics to understand the epigenetic modifications involved with social experience. Long term studies of bee biodiversity across landscapes are conducted to determine plant-pollinator associations and the status of wild bee communities. Additional biodiversity survey specimens offer invaluable data to discover cryptic species, study species ranges, adaptation and ecological niches using comparative morphology, population genetic, and geospatial modelling techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rehan Lab<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Amro Zayed, Principal Investigator<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

快播视频\u2019s Tier 2 Research Chair in Genomics
Professor, Biology Department, Faculty of Science<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Zayed\u2019s research focuses on the genetics, genomics and behaviour of social insects using the honey bee as a model organism. Using genomics, applied tools are being developed to improve honey bee health and to understand the causes and consequences of population decline in native bees such as bumblebees. Zayed has received over $20 million dollars in research funding since 2009 from a variety of sources including, Genome Canada<\/a>, Ontario Genomics<\/a>, NSERC<\/a>, and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation<\/a>. Awards include the Governor General\u2019s Gold Medal in 2007, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation\u2019s Early Researcher Award in 2010, the Faculty of Science\u2019s Early Career Researcher Award in 2014, a York Research Chair in 2015, and YorkU\u2019s President Emerging Research Leadership Award in 2017. Dr. Zayed was recently awarded the Entomological Society of Canada\u2019s Gordon C. Hewitt Award for outstanding contributions to the field of entomology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Amro Zayed, YorkU\u2019s research chair in Genomics and BEEc director, uses genomics to understand why native bees and honey bees are declining, and develops tools to overcome these declines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Honey Bee Lab<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Laurence Packer, a Distinguished Research Professor at YorkU, has built and continues to maintain the largest Canadian collection of bees, currently estimated at over 300k specimens from all over the globe!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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