Bee expert joins University of Guelph

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

A leading British expert in pollinator conservation and ecology joins the University of Guelph in May.

Nigel Raine, who is currently a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway University of London, has been named the inaugural holder of Canada’s first research chair in pollinator conservation, University of Guelph’s Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation. The university conducted a year long international search to fill the position.

Dan Davidson, president of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association, says Raine’s expertise is more in a broad range of pollinators other than honeybees but “it definitely is still positive. He’s going to be a good guy for that chair from what I understand.”

Raine studies the impacts of pesticides on bees, insect behavior and pollinator ecology. At the University of Guelph, he will be based in the School of Environmental Studies where he will raise awareness of the importance and plight of pollinators, inform public policy and help train highly qualified conservationists and agriculturalists, according to the university’s Dec. 19 press release.

In the U.K., Raine has been an adviser and expert witness for the All Parliamentary Group on Agroecology, the Advisory Committee on Pesticides, the Environment Audit Committee, the National Action Plan for Pesticides, and the Pollinator Conservation Delivery Group. He has also advised the European Food Safety Authority.

The chair is funded by a $3 million donation from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation in the name of Wendy Rebanks, Garfield Weston’s daughter and one of the foundation’s directors. BF