BOMBUSS was conceived, and its inaugural meeting planned, by Jamie Strange (USDA-ARS), Amber Tripodi (USDA-ARS), Neal Williams (UC-Davis) and Hollis Woodard (UC-Riverside). Funding to support the meeting was obtained through a grant from the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture to J. Strange and A. Tripodi and supplemental funding was provided by the USDA-ARS-National Program Staff Professional Activities Fund.
The BOMBUSS brought bumblebee researchers together to discuss the methodologies currently used to investigate these important pollinators. As domestication of bumble bees has expanded worldwide, so has research on this group of bees as model organisms for study, as crop pollinators, and as conservation targets. The growth of this field of study has been rapid, prompting the need to convene this meeting to discuss the need and potential for standardization of methods.
I thought it was a very productive meeting with many future collaborations set out! There was a great interchange of ideas and methods and several plans to publish the standardised methods we discussed. Maybe there will be a Bombuss 2? I hope so!
One of the collaborations i made with artists from the cross-pollination project has come to fruition, and its amazing!! The networking project aims to bring Art and Science together, producing creative art projects that explore and promote the crisis facing pollinators and to influence policy decision making.This particular artwork is a collaboration between the artist Dr Tyra Oseng-Rees and supporting artist Carly Wilshere-Butler from Swansea College of Art at UWTSD, myself , and Sinead Lynch from 