U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab

Sam grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland, received an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland and a master's degree at the State University of New York – Syracuse.  Most of his career has been spent at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.  He has coordinated the North American Breeding Bird Survey Program, developed the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, the Bioblitz, Cricket Crawl, and FrogwatchUSA programs and worked on the design and evaluation of monitoring programs.  Currently he is developing an inventory and monitoring program for native bees, online identification guides for North American bees at www.discoverlife.org, and with Eric Ross reviving the North American Bird Phenology Program. Sam Droege profile.

Assistant Professor of Entomology, University of Illinois

Dr. Alexandra Harmon-Threatt profile.
Dr. Harmon Threatt completed her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies degree at Washington University in St. Louis and then continued on to the University of California Berkeley to do her Ph.D. in Environmental Science Policy and Management under Dr. Claire Kremen. Dr. Harmon-Threatt is a pollination ecologist with broad interests in understanding the patterns and processes that govern plant-pollinator interactions for conservation. She is currently an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. With her students she focuses on identifying and understanding patterns in natural environments to help conserve and restore pollinator diversity. With a particular focus on bees, she investigates how plant diversity, fire, grazing and fragmentation affect bee diversity in local communities.

Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Director, Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, University of Reading, UK

Simon is also Director of the Centre of Agri-Environmental Research and Deputy Director of the Centre for Food Security. Over the past 30 years, he has worked with researchers, farmers, policymakers and NGO’s on pollinator conservation and the management of pollination services in Europe, Africa, Asia and North and South America. He has written more than 150 peer-reviewed articles, which have been published in journals such as Nature, Science, Ecology Letters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Proceedings of the Royal Society. For the last 2 years, Simon has worked for the United Nations to co-chair an expert group of 100 scientists to produce the first global assessment of “Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production” for the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). He is an advisor to the UK government, European Union, Convention on Biological Diversity, and United Nations on evidence-based policy related to pollinators. When not working on in his pollinator “hobby,” Simon enjoys time with his family canoeing, kiting and running huskies.

Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Rachael Winfree profile.
Rachael's research interests include how pollinators and the pollination services they provide are affected by global change, the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services, plant-pollinator networks, and pollinator conservation and restoration. Her work has been funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-AFRI), and has been published in leading scientific journals including PNAS, Science, Ecology Letters, Ecology, and Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Rachael’s research has also been featured in the popular media including Nature, Audubon magazine, National Wildlife magazine, Science News, The Scientist, and National Public Radio (NPR). Rachael received her Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University in 2001 and her bachelor of arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1990.