Lab Members
Current Members
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Prof. Sharoni ShafirSharoni has been the director of the B. Triwaks Bee Research Center since 1998. He advocates a multidisciplinary approach to promoting bee health and bee pollination services. He is especially interested in bee nutrition and bee cognition, specifically aspects of perception and decision making that relate to foraging and pollination. He has a BA and PhD from Stanford University, an MS from University of Florida, and was a postdoctoral fellow at The Ohio State University. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Haim KalevLab Manager and Beekeeper Haim has a B.Sc. in Agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a technician and beekeeper at the B. Triwaks Bee Research Center since 1997. Haim is very involved in education and collaboration with the international community of beekeepers. He has led many courses in subjects such as beekeeping for beginners, modern apiculture management (honey by-products and pollination), commercial beekeeping, and artificial insemination of queens. His courses take place all over the world, including Eritrea, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Rwanda, and El Salvador. haimk@savion.huji.ac.il |
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Dr. Danny MinahanPostdoctoral Fellow (Zuckerman Postdoctoral Scholar) Danny has a BA from the University of Colorado (2012), and a PhD in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019). His PhD research took a comparative approach to test predictions of temporal foraging and resource collection patterns by honey bees and bumble bees based on their known foraging strategies, notably dance communication and trapline foraging, respectively. As a Postdoctoral Scholar at the B. Triwaks Bee Research Center, Danny is seeking to understand how nutrient ratios, in particular high vs low omega 6:3 ratio affects the ontogeny of foraging in honey bees, and their spatial cognitive capabilities.
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![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Meray KadeeMS student Co-supervisor: Dr. Oz Barazani Meray was an undergraduate student at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem in the agroecology & plant sciences program. He started working at the lab as a research assistant in early 2017. In 2019 he began his MS studies on honey bee pollination of Eruca sativa.
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Chagit KanotMS student Co-supervisor: Dr. Arnon Dag
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Moran LevanonDVM student Moran is an advanced veterinary medicine student, conducting a research project on the effect of honey bee nutrition on worker and royal jelly composition.
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Maya Goren DVM student Maya is an advanced veterinary medicine student, conducting research on the effect of honey bee workers nutrition on their tending behavior of queen and worker larvae. |
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Jérémie Heraief Undergraduate student research assistant |
Lab Alumni
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Yael ArienPh.D. Student Co-supervisor: Dr. Arnon Dag Yael has a B.Sc. in Agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and continued for a direct PhD program. She studies the importance of essential fatty acids in honey bee nutrition for their development, survival, and learning and memory. Yael uses methods such as proboscis extension response (PER) conditioning and electroantennogram (EAG) recordings. |
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Shiran WaskerUndergraduate student research assistant |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Raquel Teixeira de SousaPostdoctoral Fellow Raquel has a Bsc in Applied Biology from the Universidade do Minho (Braga, Portugal) and a Msc in Toxicology and Ecotoxicology from the Universidade de Aveiro (Aveiro Portugal). It was her first beekeeping endeavors in Portugal that led her to pursue a PhD in honey bee nutrition and feeding behaviour. In 2013, she enrolled a PhD Program (GABBA, Universidade do Porto, Portugal) that paved the opportunity to engage her research in Wright’s Lab in Newcastle University (UK). Her PhD research was on behavioural regulation and feeding preferences of mineral salts in adult worker honey bees. Raquel has recently started her first post-doc position (2018) to follow up her previous research in a joint collaboration between Wright’s Lab and Shafir’s Lab in the HUJI (Rehovot, Israel). |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Sofia BouchebtiPostdoctoral Fellow Sofia investigates how ratios of macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fatty acids) affect various measures of performance in honey bees (such as survival, learning, and memory), and whether bees are able to balance their intake of nutrients as a function of different social parameters. During her PhD in the University Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, she has studied the foraging behavior of the leaf-cutting ant Atta laevigata, both in laboratory (in France) and in the field (in Brazil). |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Rui GoncalvesResearch Associate Rui has a BSc in Applied Biology from the Universidade do Minho (Braga, Portugal) and a Joint European MSc in Environmental Studies (JEMES) between Portugal, Spain, Denmark and Germany. His MSc research focused on the development of a low-cost MFC (micro fuel cell) reactor using exoelectrogenic bacteria in the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) between 2009-2011. Soon after in Northern Portugal, he was introduced to beekeeping, co-founded a beekeeping association and a beekeeping company and ever since, Rui has been a devoted beekeeper without borders. In 2016, Rui conducted a market research in bee nutrition and beekeeping practices across the globe as an ICURE fellow. He joined Shafir’s Lab in Rehovot as part of a joint collaboration with the Wright’s lab (Newcastle University – UK) to improve bee nutrition. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Ira TreidelResearch Associate Ira is a passionate beekeeper, right-hand man of Haim. He has a B.Sc. in Agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and he joined the laboratory four years ago. In addition to his beekeeping work, he is involved in many different research experiments. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Harmen P. HendriksmaFormer Postdoctoral Fellow Harmen is a devoted beekeeper and researcher. He studied ecosystem biology at the University of Wageningen, in Holand. Thereafter, he was a professional beekeeper for 4 years until he started his PhD in Bayreuth and Wuerzburg in Germany. His PhD research was on honey bee risk assessment with transgenic maize. Harmen was a postdoc in the B. Triwaks Bee Research Center from 2012 – 2015, working on the nutritional balancing done by honey bees. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Tal ErezCo-supervisor: Dr. Oz Barazani MS Thesis: The role of flower morph in Eruca sativa (Brassicaceae) populations in attracting honey bees (Apis mellifera) |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Yael GarbianCo-supervisor: Prof. Ilan Sela PhD Thesis: Horizontal Transfer of RNA sequences between honey bee, Varroa destructor, and IAPV. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Tania MasciFormer Laboratory Technician |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Reut NyskaCo-supervisor: Dr. Doron Schneider Thesis: The gametophytic self-incompatibility system in loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) and the foraging behavior of honey bees |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Karmi OxmanCo-supervisor: Prof. Ofer Feinerman MS Thesis: Reliability and the waggle dance: Honest honey bees dance more and attract more followers than dishonest bees
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![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Amir RazCo-supervisor: Prof. Martin Goldway and Dr. Raffi Stern PhD Thesis: Pollination in apricots (Prunus armeniaca): honey bee foraging behavior and genetic aspects of the fertilisation mechanism |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Shlomi ZarchinCo-supervisor: Dr. Arnon Dag Shlomi's M.Sc. thesis was on the ability of honey bee (Apis mellifera) foragers to discriminate between pollens according to their fatty acid composition |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Nadav EzraNadav's M.Sc. thesis tested the subjective evaluation by honey bees of nectar secondary compounds and their fitness consequences. Specifically, he tested the effect on colony fitness of various components of avocado nectar, which is known to be unattractive to bees. In addition, he assessed the subjective evaluation of honey bees of caffeine in nectar, through analyses of their round dances. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Dorit AvniCo-supervisor: Dr. Arnon Dag PhD Thesis: The effect of pollen protein content and fatty acid composition on honey bee (Apis mellifera) nutrition |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Gal SapirCo-supervisor: Prof. Martin Goldway PhD Thesis: Gametophytic self incompatibility in Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) – Investigation of the system and its horticultural impact |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Anat Haya ZisovichM.Sc. Thesis: Study of pollination and fertilization factors influencing yield in the Israeli pear orchard |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Mor Salomon-BotnerFormer Postdoctoral Fellow: Honey bee discrimination between omega-3 and omega-6 volatiles of fatty acids |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Roy KaspiFormer Postdoctoral Fellow: Associative olfactory learning of the red dwarf honey bee, Apis florea |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Nitzan PaldiM.Sc. Thesis: Using “scent genes” to enhance honey bee-assisted cross-pollination between cross-fertilizing cultivars, to produce hybrid seed |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Alon BiluM.Sc. Thesis: Use of honey bees to disseminate Trichodex (Trichoderma harziatum T39) to strawberry for the control of gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Yeshurun PlesserM.Sc. Thesis: Factors that affect the attraction of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) to the cotton plant (Gossypium spp.) yplesser@biobee.com |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Lia Vaknin-YehonatanM.Sc. Thesis: Comparative evaluations of reward dimensions in honey bees: evidence from two-alternative forced choice proboscis-extension conditioning liaguy@hotmail.com |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Sharon GolanM.Sc. Thesis: Risk-sensitivity in delay to reward in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Tamar Drezner-LeviM.Sc. Thesis: Evaluation of reward distribution by honey bee (Apis mellifera) foragers collecting nectar, pollen and water |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Gil MendaM.Sc. Thesis: An experimental study of choice behavior of honey bees in response to variability in reward magnitude using a proboscis extension response (PER) paradigm. gm234@cornell.edu |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Ohad AfikM.Sc. Thesis: The effect of ambient temperature on the crop loading behavior of honey bees (Apis mellifera) PhD Thesis: Factors influcencing the attraction of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to avocado (Persea americana) flowers ohad.afik@mail.huji.ac.il |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dr. Arnon DagFormer Postdoctoral Fellow: Honey bee (Apis mellifera) strains differ in avocado (Persea americana) nectar foraging preferences arnondag@volcani.agri.gov.il |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Daniel MenchemFormer undergraduate student working in the lab. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dan EliahuFormer undergraduate student working in the lab. |
![]() ראה גם: Sharoni Shafir |
Dror FriedmanFormer undergraduate student working in the lab. |