Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology
cmgrozinger@psu.edu
Christina Grozinger is the Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and the Director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State. She has a master of science degree and doctoral degree in chemistry from Harvard University, and a bachelor of science dual degree in biology and chemistry from McGill University. Christina’s research program focuses on pollinator behavior and health. Her studies evaluate the impacts of different stressors at the molecular, physiological and behavioral level, and examine how bees’ resilience to these stressors can be bolstered by management practices and environmental contexts, particularly by improved nutrition.
Together with the Beescape team, Christina is also developing models and decision support tools to evaluate landscape and climate conditions and predict bee health at local scales, to help beekeepers, growers, land managers, and members of the public better assess and mitigate the stressors that their managed and wild bee populations experience. She is an elected Fellow of the Entomological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received the 2021 National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agricultural Sciences. The Penn State Center for Pollinator Research includes more than 40 faculty from nine different Colleges across Penn State. The center is committed to developing and implementing integrative, multidisciplinary approaches to improving pollinator health, conservation, and management. The research, education and outreach programs of the center have been used to inform the design, management and implementation of the Pollinator and Bird Garden at the Arboretum at Penn State.