Dr. Baer provides an introduction to bees, their ecological importance and the role they play in our agriculture systems on July 14 Lecture.

The second lecture, on July 21, Dr. Baer shares an overview of the Center for Integrative Bee Research (CIBER), a globally active research and teaching network that develops and uses novel and innovative approaches alongside industry partners to safeguard pollinating insects and their services in order to secure human food production and ecosystem stability.

Boris Baer, born in 1969 studied Biology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. After fieldwork on primates in South America (French Guyana) he performed a PhD 1997-2000 at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Since 2008, he is the director of the Center for Integrative Bee Research (CIBER, see https://ciber.ucr.edu), which was moved and reestablished at the University of California Riverside in 2018. The main scientific interest of Boris Baer is the study of reproduction and immunity in bees and ants, using biochemical methodologies such as proteomics and genomics as well as classical approaches of behavioral ecology. A main goal of his work is the development of novel tools to monitor and manage pollinator health through collaborative research with the beekeeping industry