Bees are not only beautiful, they are also indispensable for nature conservation and agriculture. Yet they are under threat across the world; honey bees by virulent viruses and wild bees by intensification of land use. We have caused these problems, and we need to solve them for a sustainable future on planet Earth. A graduate of Sussex University (UK) with a PhD on the evolutionary ecology of insects (1985), Robert developed interests in bees and sociality at Cardiff University (UK, 1985-1993) before undertaking postdocs at the Department of Genetics of Uppsala University (Sweden, 1993-1996) and the University of Tübingen (Germany, 1996-2003). In 2003 he took a faculty position at Queen’s University Belfast (UK) then, in 2010, moved back to Germany to take up a chair in zoology at the University of Halle and membership of iDiv. His research addresses host-parasite interactions, pollination as an ecosystem service, and social evolution, with a strong taxonomic focus on the bees. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at [ Ссылка ]
