This week we celebrated Professor Mark Brown’s appointment as Director of the University Museum of Zoology and Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology. His inaugural lecture, ‘Through the lens of a bee: from the past to the future’, surveyed his ground-breaking research on bees, in the context of past, present and future research, cultural significance and conservation.

Professor Brown set out the multiple pressures driving bee decline, including pesticides, parasites, pathogens and habitat loss, and the complex ways these interact. He explained how his research has shaped understanding of pesticide impacts, from laboratory studies to large-scale fieldwork across Europe. He also offered hopeful insights, for example the discovery that flowers have a pharmaceutical function for bees, helping protect them against disease.

He emphasised how collaboration both with students and other academics, and with local, national and regional organisations is central to his work.  (He also showed an image of just a few of the amazing bee-themed cakes they’ve shared over the years!)  

A key message of the lecture was the importance of gearing research to inform policy change and direct practical actions.  His examples included his group’s ongoing project with the European Food Safety Authority to reduce pesticide use, and their research into the efficacity of ‘no mow May’, showing this to be a great strategy to support pollinators.

Without the research that Professor Brown has led, both in the lab and in the field, the threat to bees would be much less well understood and the challenge to reverse their decline even tougher. 

We are delighted to have officially welcomed him as a member of our department.

Read more:

What's killing our bees – and how they fight back

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Pictures left to right: two celebratory cakes created by members of Prof Mark Brown's lab; a drawer full of bees at the Zoology Museum; an echinops flower with bumblebees.(Photos by Mark Brown.)