May Berenbaum

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May Berenbaum (born 1953) is a prominent entomologist interested in the chemical interactions between herbivorous insects and their host-plants, and the implications of these interactions on the organization of natural communities and the evolution of species.

Berenbaum graduated summa cum laude, with a B.S. degree and honors in biology, from Yale University in 1975; she attended graduate school at Cornell University and received a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology in 1980.

Since 1980, she has been a member of the faculty of the department of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has served as head of the department since 1992[1]. In addition to her research, she is devoted to teaching and to fostering scientific literacy; she is the recipient of the 1996 Entomological Society of America North Central Branch Distinguished Teaching Award and has authored numerous magazine articles, as well as three books about insects for the general public. She has also gained some measure of fame as the organizer of the Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois, an annual celebration of Hollywood's entomological excesses.

On September, 2007, a scientist's report found that a virus (mysterious affliction previously unknown in the United States) may be cause of honeybees' deaths. Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist (Science Express) stated that the finding used a new genetic technique and statistics to identify Israeli acute paralysis virus as potential cause of massive deaths of worker bees (Colony Collapse Disorder). Jerry Hayes, chief of the apiary section of Florida's Agriculture Department confirmed the study but stressed that it is just part of the problem. Berenbaum, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign entomologist found that colony collapse disorder is only the latest devastating problem of bees and other pollinator populations across North America. CCD destroyed 50% - 90% of commercial honeybee hives in the U.S. Australia is pointed as a potential source of the virus. And in the new study or technique, "pyrosequencing" generates a list of the full repertoire of genes in bees they examined from U.S. hives and directly imported from Australia.[2]

She also had a character in the X-Files named after her. Dr. Bambi Berenbaum, a famous entomologist and love-interest of Agent Mulder.

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