Bee Wild! Pollinator Conservation Talk & Activities

Join the University of Texas Department of Integrative Biology and the Wildflower Center for an interesting and exciting science lecture from visiting professor Dr. Laura Burkle, “Bee Wild! Stories of the Science and Conservation of Pollinators.” Come early for science activities and snacks and stay to learn about the importance of pollinators in an ecosystem!

11:30 a.m. – Reception with science activities, snacks, exhibits and prizes

1-2 p.m. – All-ages science talk on pollinators and how to protect them

The lecture and reception are free to attend. Please let the Admissions Kiosk staff know you are here for these activities.

Admission to the Wildflower Center is always free for members! Learn about membership.

Dr. Burkle’s research focuses on the biodiversity of complex communities of flowering plants and pollinators, and the pollination services they provide in both wild lands and managed systems. She is especially interested in how plant-pollinator interactions vary across space and time as a result of environmental conditions—including climate change, land-use change, and disturbances such as wildfire.

Dr. Laura Burkle is an associate professor of ecology at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman. Before joining MSU as an Assistant Professor in 2011, she was a research fellow at Washington University in St. Louis studying how plant and pollinator interactions were affected by 120 years of human development and climate change. She received her PhD from the Ecology and Evolution program at Dartmouth College.

The talk and reception are part of the Jean Andrews Centennial Visiting Professorship in Tropical and Economic Botany, sponsored by The University of Texas at Austin Department of Integrative Biology and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Jean Andrews (1924-2010) graduated from UT Austin in 1944 with a bachelor of science degree in home economics and later became a patron of the Plant Biology Program. She completed her master’s degree in 1966 at Texas A&M University and received a Ph.D. in art from North Texas State University in 1976. Andrews was inducted into the Hall of Honor of the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Natural Sciences in 1991. She was awarded the Distinguished Alumna award by the University of North Texas at Denton in 1991 and by the University of Texas at Austin in 1997. Her support of the Graduate Program in Plant Biology and the Department of Integrative Biology continues through an endowment she established for the Jean Andrews Visiting Faculty Fellowship that brings a scholar in tropical or economic botany to UT each year.