Researchers from York’s Faculties of Science and Environmental Studies hosted their sixth “BeeCon,” otherwise known as Southern Ontario’s Bee Researchers Symposium. The event took place Nov. 24.
BeeCon is a free one-day conference for local and international bee biologists to present and discuss their work on a wide range of bee-related topics, including bee behaviour and genetics. It was initially launched by Faculty of Science Professor Laurence Packer as an opportunity for students to showcase their research, receive feedback, and interact with bee experts from nearby universities.
“Here in south Ontario we have many bee researchers from different universities,” said PhD student Nadia Tsvetkov (supervised by Professor Amro Zayed in the Faculty of Science) who helped organize the event. “With BeeCon, we can all come together in a friendly environment to talk about our work.”
Fifty-five people attended this year’s symposium, including researchers from the University of Western Ontario, University of Guelph, University of Toronto, Brock University, and York University. In addition, representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs attended. The keynote speaker for the event was Professor Andrew Barron, an accomplished bee researcher from Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) who presented “What makes a good forager honey bee?”
This year’s meeting was sponsored by the Office of the Vice President of Research and Innovation, the Faculties of Science and Environmental studies, and the York University Book Store.