Dr. Alexandra Harmon-Threatt is the Bennett endowed lecturer at UMBS this summer. She is a pollination ecologist with broad interests in understanding the patterns and processes that govern plant-pollinator interactions for conservation.

As an Assistant Professor of Entomology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, she and her students focus 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.

During the research seminar, she will explain her work investigating pollinators and how it is pertinent to conservation efforts.