Gordon Frankie

Gordon Frankie is a professor and research entomologist in the Division of Insect Biology, College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley. His specialty is behavioral ecology of solitary bees in wildland and urban environments of California and Costa Rica. He also teaches conservation and environmental problem-solving at U.C. Berkeley.

Robbin Thorp

Robbin W. Thorp is Professor Emeritus of Entomology at the University of California, Davis. He retired in 1994 after 30 years of teaching, research, and mentoring graduate students. He continues to conduct research on pollination biology and ecology, systematics, biodiversity and conservation of bees. He has special interests in native bees of the vernal pool ecosystem. For more information on life history and pollination by these bees, see: www.vernalpools.org/Thorp/.

Rollin Coville

Rollin received his Ph.D. degree in Entomology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978. He recently retired from AT&T where he served as a systems analyst and programmer. For more than 25 years his primary outside interest has been photographing insects and spiders. He also has a strong interest in the biology and behavior of Hymenoptera and has published papers on Trypoxylon wasps and Centris bees.

Mary Schindler

Mary Schindler is a recent graduate from U.C. Berkeley who became involved in Dr. Gordon Frankie's bee research 4 years ago. Since she began this research, she has had the opportunity to watch thousands of bees in action as they interact with flowers (natives and exotics) in the urban and natural environment. The aspect of her research she most enjoys is fieldwork, which involves wandering around in nature reserves and beautiful residential gardens, observing gorgeous flowers, and counting bees at work.

Barbara Ertter

Barbara Ertter is Curator of Western North American Flora at the University and Jepson Herbaria of the University of California at Berkeley.  Areas of expertise include the East Bay flora, development of natural history institutions in California, and the taxonomy of various Rosaceae (Rosa, Potentilla, Ivesia, Horkeli) and Juncaceae (Juncus).  Her role in the team is identifying the plants used by urban bees.

Jennifer Hernandez

Jennifer Hernandez is a Ph.D. student in Gordon Frankie's lab. She received her M.S. in insect physiology with a thesis on the metabolism of the carpenter ant. Upon joining the Frankie lab she shifted her focus from physiology to entomology and habitat restoration. Jennifer works along Putah Creek in Northern California investigating changes in native ant and bee populations after habitat restoration.

Jaime Pawelek

Jaime has a B.S. from UC Berkeley in Conservation and Resource Studies with a focus on Restoration Ecology. Jaime transferred to UC Berkeley in 2006 from Columbia College in Sonora, Ca, with an Associate of Science in Natural Resources. She has been working in the urban bee lab for 2 years and has enjoyed learning about native bee biology, especially observing their many wondrous behaviors. She also has a strong interest in California native plants and how they can be used in restoration efforts.

Sara Witt

Sara graduated with a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies in summer 2008, with an area of interest in Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology. She has been working in the Frankie Urban bee lab for the past 2 years. Sara’s interests include both terrestrial and marine invertebrate conservation.

Maggie Przybylski

Maggie Przybylski transplanted from Oakland, CA, where she met Dr. Frankie at The Oakland Zoo, to San Luis Obispo, CA to complete her Bachelors Degree in Biological Sciences with an emphasis on field biology. When Maggie is not assisting Dr. Frankie at the San Luis Obispo sites, she is working full time as an Environmental Scientist for the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation toward the recovery of two endangered birds. Maggie also sings in a jazz/blues/rock band and loves to garden.

Misha Leong

Misha is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Frankie Lab to understand how insect communities are affected in human altered landscapes. She has adored arthropods for as long as she can remember, but got especially excited about them when studying in Costa Rica. Since then, she has completed a B.S. in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution at UCLA and an M.S. in Ecology at San Francisco State with a thesis on spider assemblages in urban ecosystems. She is now focusing on California native bees and the potential to attract and increase populations in urban and agricultural settings.

Marissa Ponder

Marissa graduated with a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in the Spring of 2009. She has been working in the Frankie Urban bee lab since 2007 and wrote an honor's thesis on one of her favorite subjects; urban bee gardens. Marissa’s interests include urban ecology, habitat gardening, California condors, rock climbing, and running.