Dr. Ramsey received his B.S. in entomology from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Maryland College Park. He completed his post-doctoral training with Dr. Jay Evans, Steve Cook, and Daniel Sonenshine at USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory and now serves as Endowed Professor of Entomology at CU Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. Featured on Hulu’s Docuseries: Your Attention Please as well as in the Washington Post, on NPR, CNN, Wired, CBS This Morning, Khan Academy, Seeker, The Today Show and several local news segments, Ramsey is celebrated as an engaging science communicator. He uses this talent to make science more accessible to a broad audience. His nonprofit, The Ramsey Research Foundation, works to remove barriers that slow the progress of and decrease access to science by developing novel pathways for scientific funding and by removing paywalls that keep the public from engaging with published scientific work.

Born in Colombia, South America, Juliana obtained a B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution in 2014 from the University of California, San Diego. In 2010 she obtained a Ph. D. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She was an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow from 2010 to 2013 at North Carolina State University. In January 2013, Juliana became Assistant Professor of Apiculture in the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in College Station, TX. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2018. Her research program focuses on the biological and environmental factors that affect the reproductive quality of honey bees, the behavioral ecology and population genetics of feral colonies, and the quality and diversity of honey bee nutrition in a changing landscape. She is an active member of the Texas Beekeepers Association and has spoken to dozens of beekeeping associations across the USA and internationally. She teaches the courses Honey Bee Biology, Introduction to Beekeeping, and Professional Grant and Contract Writing. Since 2014 she has been the coach of TAMU’s undergraduate and graduate teams of the Entomology Games at the branch and national games of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), earning first and second place nationally four years in a row. She is the 2022 Vice-President for the Southwestern Branch of the ESA and is the past elected chair of the National ESA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She previously served as the elected chair of her department’s Faculty Advisory Committee and has been part of several committees at the departmental, college, and university level. In 2021 she received the James I. Hambleton Memorial Award, which was established by the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America to recognize research excellence in apiculture. She also received the 2020 John G. Thomas Award for Meritorious Service from the Texas Beekeepers Association for her contributions to the apiculture industry in the state. She received the 2019 Dean’s award for Excellence in Diversity and the 2016 Dean’s award for Excellence in Early Career Research from TAMU’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. She also received the 2018 Outstanding Achievement in Mentoring award from the Entomology Graduate Student Association. She was 2014 President and 2013 Vice-President of the American Association of Professional Apiculturists.

Dr. Peck is the Director of Research and Education at Betterbee in Greenwich, NY, where he assists in product development and research, and also teaches classes and develops scientifically-sound educational materials. His doctoral work in Cornell University’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior was supervised by Professor Tom Seeley. His dissertation research focused on the transmission of mites between bee colonies, as well as the mite-resistance traits of the untreated honey bees living in Cornell’s Arnot Forest.

After earning his degree, he has continued to research varroa/bee interactions, including fieldwork in Newfoundland, Canada (where varroa still have not arrived) and Anosy Madagascar (where varroa arrived only in 2010 or 2011). He has served as a teaching postdoctoral fellow in Cornell’s Department of Entomology, and is still affiliated with Cornell through the Honey Bee Health program in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Peck has kept bees for more than a decade, though his home apiary is often full of mite-riddled research colonies so he doesn’t usually produce much honey.

Krispn Given is the Apiculture Specialist in the Department of Entomology at Purdue University. Krispn started keeping bees at the age of nine working with his father who introduced him to the world of bees, he purchased his fist car selling comb honey. Today he is recognized as one of the leading international authorities in the fields of instrumental insemination and honey bee breeding. Given started breeding bees 26 years ago conducting research with 150-300 colonies looking for solutions to improve honey bee health with the use of selective breeding. Krispn continues to run the honey bee breeding program at Purdue University, and teaching annual queen rearing short courses in addition to managing the honey bee laboratory, along with extension and student research activities.
Given teaches instrumental insemination classes each year attracting researchers and bee breeders worldwide. Given’s research is focused on identifying, selecting and enhancing honey bee stock that express increased levels of behavioral resistance to Varroa. Krispn was instrumental in developing the “Indiana Mite-biter” (in collaboration with honey bee geneticist Greg Hunt) honey bee strain, where they demonstrated bees that groom themselves free of mites also bite more mites when groomed off the adult bees. It is a heritable trait that is beneficial to beekeepers, resulting in less winter mortality. The primary mechanism of defense is the ability to groom themselves free of varroa mites and bite them.

He was also involved in several research projects the last nineteen years at Purdue, he is an author and co-author of numerous publications, books, including scientific and trade journal articles. Given was instrumental in designing innovative instrumental insemination devises made in America with Dale McMahan who holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. Krispn is also a past president of the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Cooperative.

Blake started his beekeeping journey 20 years ago at 12 years old as a small scale hobby beekeeper. Over the past 2 decades, the business has grown significantly with the help of an incredible team. It is now a migratory commercial beekeeping operation with 10,000 hives, a bulk bee supply company (Desert Creek Bulk Bees) , a honey packing company (Desert Creek Honey), a chain of hobby beekeeping stores (The Bee Supply) and a commercial bee supply store (Commercial Bee Supply). Blake married his high school sweetheart in 2011, and has two beautiful daughters. He also serves on the National Honey Board and on the board of the American Beekeeping Federation.