Miriam Bixby

Inspired by her desire for environment sustainability and her PhD in environmental economics, Miriam has spent the last decade as a research associate with Dr. Foster’s honey bee research team out of UBC. Miriam works on the economic impacts of honey bee health and the economic and biological effects of new genomic health tools for improving bee health.  Miriam has focused her research on the social and economic aspects of bringing effective and accessible new integrated pest management tools to the industry through a series of industry surveys and focus groups across the country.  Miriam and her colleagues developed the Canadian Queen Bee breeding Reference Guide that is available on the CAPA and CHC websites for beekeepers and breeders. Recently, Miriam is working on the Bee CSI project with Dr. Foster and Dr. Zayed (York University)’s teams. Bee CSI is developing diagnostic platforms for beekeepers to more accurately and efficiently test for stressors in their bees in order to improve the economic and biological efficacy of treatment and overall bee health. Miriam also recently published findings from a study in collaboration with Dr. Marta Guarna from AAFC and others looking at the costs of queen production in Canada.