Profile

Dr. J.J.M. van der Steen (m) is teacher biologist (BSc) and environmentalist (MSc) by education. He worked from 1975 till 2017 in honeybee- bumblebee- and solitary bee research in institutes linked to Wageningen University and since 2004 in Wageningen University. He has been working on honeybee diseases amongst others on the interference of Nosema apis and the midgut microbiome of honeybees and varroa control strategies. He co-developed the indoor rearing on Bombus terrestris including bumblebee disease studies and diagnosis methods and developed a quality control system in bumble bee rearing. He conducted (citizen science) surveillance studies on winter mortality and vitality of the Dutch honeybee population. He is member of the Coloss network of bee researchers and was in the EC of the Coloss network from 2012 to 2016. He co-coordinated with dr R. Brodschneider from Graz university the Coloss citizen science project (2013- 2015) on pollen diversity in Europe. In ecotoxicology he implemented the GLP quality system in ecotoxicology studies with honeybees and bumblebees chaired the ICPPR bumblebee working group from 2002 to 2006 and the ICPPR non-apis working group from 2014 to 2017 developing standardized test protocols for bumblebees and solitary bees (Osmia sp.) laboratory and field. In 2010 he participated in a 2-year tripartite cooperation between The Netherlands Brazil and Kenia to develop laboratory tests for local pollinator species. Studies on interaction between the environment and honeybees and bumblebees focused on the bio-sampling capacity of the honeybee colony and the subsequent non-sacrificial subsampling of the honeybee colony resulted in the PhD thesis Beehold the colony of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) as a bio-sampler for pollutants and plant pathogens. He has published 23 peer-reviewed articles tens of popular scientific articles in beekeepers journals and 27 symposium- and conference abstracts.