Please, contact page-developer Laurel Treviño with questions or comments – ltrevino@austin.utexas.edu
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT & NEWS (scroll to bottom of page)
Laurel Treviño Murphy is the Outreach Program Coordinator for the Jha Lab in the Integrative Biology Department at the The University of Texas at Austin, College of Natural Sciences, 1 University Station G2500, Austin, TX 78712 – ltrevino@austin.utexas.edu
Jha lab members share research & public engagement!
Megan O’Connell, Environmental Science Institute – Scientist in Residence taught Laurel Mountain Elementary School students about pollinator gardens & Jha Lab members installed a pollinator garden, https://www.youtube.com/watch
UT Biodiversity Center‘s blog on leaf-cutter bees: Nesting Isn’t Just For The Birds! by Nicole Elmer & Laurel Treviño
UT Bee Campus On June 2, 2020, UT Austin attained certification from Xerces Society! Committee members (left-right) Jill Parrish (UT Sustainability, Green Fund), Richard Zhang (Beevo), Laurel Treviño (Jha Lab), Jen Hrobar (Landscape Services Office), Nancy Moran (FRI Bugs in Bugs), Jack Rouse & Emily Mitchell (Beevo) 
UT Austin offers 10 research-based education and public engagement activities focused on pollinators; 10 non- and credit courses include pollinators; biological station directors coordinate research projects on pollinators; 4 websites information on native bees; and longhorn bees go to the rodeo! Bee Campus National Calendar & Events
Pollinator Day 2022 – Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Xerces Society, Jha lab
Texas Wildlife Expo at the San Antonio Rodeo – in 2018 & 2019, thousands of visitors learned that native bees are part of the state’s wildlife thanks to hosts: S.A.L.E. Ranch Rodeo Scholarship Committee who invited us to represent Integrative Biology!
Laurel has taught the “Native Bees of Texas” course at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center since 2018 – participants observe native bees in labs and landscapes. Tania Zastrow folded the course into the Texas Pollinator Bioblitz
Pollinator Garden & Orchard Tour – 2017 – UT Austin Sustainability Week Jen Hrobar, Landscape Services & Laurel Treviño, Jha Lab photos
ESI Scientist in Residence, Megan O’Connell, installed a pollinator garden at Laurel Mountain Elementary School https://www.youtube.com/watch
ESI Hot Science-Cool Talk on native bees was given by Dr. Shalene Jha in 2017
Laurel taught Boy Scouts about native bees in 2017
Waller Creek Conservancy – Animal Facts Club – Jha lab – LBJWFC in 2016
Laguna Gloria 2015 outreach activities were led by Sara, Laurel, Megan, Kim
Jha Lab has participated in Pollinator Nature Nights at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center from 2015-2019
Shalene Jha was the CNS Family Day speaker in 2015
NEWS
- Arizona Republic’s Jan. 18, 2023 news article: “The truth about bees may sting: They’ve been linked to your life expectancy,” cites a new publication by Nick Ivers and Shalene Jha on the biogeography of parasite risk in bumble bees. See azcentral
- UT Austin Bee Campus was certified on June 2, 2020 (Public Engagement below)
- UT Biodiversity Center “Nesting isn’t just for the birds” blog on leaf-cutter bees
- BBC Radio Science in Action Dr. Shalene Jha “Learning about bees through paternity tests for fruits” April 5, 2018 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p063dg1g
- The Herald Democrat, January 2018, Native Prairie Restoration for Pollinators Dr. Elinor Lichtenberg, Dr. Shalene Jha (Texas), Dr. Kristen Baum (Oklahoma)
- The Daily Texan Small bees can pull their own weight in pollination http://dailytexanonline.com/2017/11/16/small-bees-can-pull-their-own-weight-in-pollination
- UT News, the secret sex lives of trees in which tiny bees play a big role https://news.utexas.edu/2017/11/06/tiny-bees-play-big-part-in-sex-lives-of-trees
- National Public Radio, Science Friday – Dr. Jha on native bees: https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-secret-life-of-tiny-bees ; https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-glittery-jewels-of-the-bee-world
- Texas Standard & The Source on bumble bees (Molecular Ecology, 2015) http://www.texasstandard.org/shows/05202015/why-you-should-care-about-homeless-bees; http://tpr.org/post/source-plan-pollinators
- Huffington Post on sustainable coffee (Bioscience 2014)
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/sustainable-coffee_n_5175192.htm
- The New York Times on California bumble bee research (PNAS 2013) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/opinion/greedy-gardeners.html?_r=0
- NPR All Things Considered discussed shade coffee pollinators (PNAS 2010)
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129800164
- NPR Talk of the Nation – Science Friday – shade coffee seed disperser research (Current Biology 2008) http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/510221/98746665/npr_98746665.mp3
