A Hive of Expertise
Honey bees play an important role in agriculture, and North Carolina State University has played an important role in honey bee health for decades.
For thousands of students and beekeepers, North Carolina State University Professor John Thomas Ambrose taught lessons not just about bee biology and behavior but about life itself.
“He taught over 5,000 students over multiple generations that when we all work together, like a hive, we can collectively create a lasting change in the world,” says Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, one of his former students.
Ambrose’s lesson was Bonner’s inspiration for starting Bee Downtown, which sets up hives on corporate campuses to teach employees about the importance of honey bees. Bee Downtown now partners with around 130 corporations in eight cities, managing more than 500 hives for leading companies such as Microsoft, Porsche, Wellstar Health, Bandwidth and MetLife.
Over his 40-year career, Ambrose built a strong beekeeping—or apiculture—research and NC State Extension program. When Ambrose joined the university as an apiculture Extension specialist and researcher in 1975, interest in beekeeping was spreading statewide through the work of the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association (NCSBA).
In 1976, NCSBA created the Apiculture Science Fund to help advance the growth of apiculture in North Carolina. The following year, Ambrose began teaching an introductory course on honey bees and beekeeping. His first class had 31 students and enrollment grew to 200 later in his career.
When we all work together, like a hive, we can collectively create a lasting change in the world.
To improve beekeeping statewide, Ambrose started the Master Beekeeper Program with NCSBA in 1982. The program—one of the nation’s earliest, strongest and largest—teaches beekeepers to train others. Ambrose served as executive secretary of NCSBA for many years, received its distinguished service award and was president when he died in 2015.
Ambrose’s work continues at NC State with David Tarpy, a professor and Extension apiculture specialist in the Department of Applied Ecology.
Because of Ambrose and Tarpy’s lasting impact, Bee Downtown made a gift to the NCSBA Faculty Award in Apiculture, an endowment to create a permanent faculty position in apiculture research at NC State.
“The professorship will help ensure that research and Extension in honey bee biology and management at NC State continue in perpetuity, solidifying the great relationship we have with the state beekeepers,” Tarpy says.
To contribute to the Apiculture Science Fund or the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association Faculty Award in Apiculture fund, visit go.ncsu.edu/beefunds
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