Gordon W. Frankie, Principal Investigator
Gordon Frankie is a professor and research entomologist in the Division of Insect Biology, College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley. His specialty is behavioral ecology of solitary bees in wildland and urban environments of California and Costa Rica. He also teaches conservation and environmental problem-solving at UC Berkeley.
Robbin Thorp, Project Taxonomist
Robbin W. Thorp is Professor Emeritus of Entomology at the University of California, Davis. He retired in 1994 after 30 years of teaching, research, and mentoring graduate students. He continues to conduct research on pollination biology and ecology, systematics, biodiversity and conservation of bees, especially bumble bees. He has special interests in native bees of the vernal pool ecosystem. For more information on life history and pollination by these bees, see: www.vernalpools.org/Thorp/.
Rollin Coville, Lead Photographer
Rollin received his Ph.D. degree in Entomology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978. He recently retired from AT&T where he served as a systems analyst and programmer. For more than 25 years his primary outside interest has been photographing insects and spiders. He also has a strong interest in the biology and behavior of Hymenoptera and has published papers on Trypoxylon wasps and Centris bees.
To see more great insect pics from Rollin visit: http://www.covillephotos.com.
To see more great insect pics from Rollin visit: http://www.covillephotos.com.
Mary Schindler, Grant Writer
When Mary Schindler began working in the Urban Bee Lab over 10 years ago, honey bees, hives and honey were the extent of her knowledge about the world of bees. Majoring in English, she had expected to be reading and writing about environmental science, policy and management -- the course she had taken with Professor Gordon Frankie in her last years as an undergrad at UC Berkeley. Instead, she found herself chasing native bees through the streets of Berkeley, and learning to look at the green spaces around her in a whole new way. Since then, Mary has worked in various capacities for the Lab, and is currently managing a growing grant program in order to support its many critical programs and projects.
Luis Sandoval, Costa Rica Project Manager
Luis, with sister, Flor and aunt, Hilda.
Luis does the day-to-day bee-flower research in the Tempisque region of Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, which is part of the UC urban bee project of Dr. Frankie. His work, which started in 2006, includes monitoring flowering and fruiting of ~ 800 flowering plants (~60 spp.), conducting bee visitation counts, and collecting/curating native bee species for a comparative study of bees on native plants in local urban and wildland areas. Some of this field work is being supported by a grant from the National Geographic Society.
Chris Jadallah, Researcher
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Chris graduated from Cal in December 2016 with a B.S. in Conservation & Resources Studies and a minor in Education. He's interested in both California ecosystems and sustainable agriculture, and is intrigued by how native bees play a role in both areas. During time spent working on the San Mateo County School Farm, he helped deliver educational programming regarding pollinators and their importance to agriculture. Chris manages much of the Lab's fieldwork, outreach, and education programming. He loves participating in our annual Sonoma Bee Count as he has academic interests in citizen science and experiential learning. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, trying new types of food, and exploring new neighborhoods.
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Ingrid Feng, Researcher
Ingrid graduated from Cal in December 2016 with a B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology. As a pre-health student, she also had an interest in environmental science and conservation studies and was able to explore this through the undergraduate research program in the Lab. She now has a passion for native bees, their contribution to agriculture, and the relationship between bees, plants, and people. She works doing fieldwork, data analysis/management, and outreach. In her free time she enjoys swimming, cooking, and traveling to new places.
Marissa Chase, Student Researcher
Marissa is in her fourth year as an undergraduate at Cal. She to graduate in the Spring of 2018 with a B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology and a minor in Forestry. Marissa's concentration within her major is entomology, and she hopes to pursue graduate school in the future within this field. She's most passionate about insects and has become increasingly interested in pollinator/plant interactions since joining the lab. She works doing fieldwork, outreach, and data management. In her free time she enjoys collecting insects for her own collection, backpacking, drawing, and cooking.
Adele Wallrich, Student Researcher
Adele is in her third year as an undergraduate at Cal, majoring in Conservation and Resource Studies. She loves learning about ecology, food systems, and the relationship between bees and sustainable agriculture. After learning about the plight of honeybees and monoculture farming, she decided that bees, specifically native Californian ones, were her calling. When she’s not in class, she’s helping out with bee labeling in the lab, fieldwork, or databasing. She is also a classically trained pianist who enjoys expensive cappuccinos.
