While queen bees rule in the hive, the latest apiculture industry award has gone to one of the kings of the bee world.

Dr Barry Donovan was awarded the Peter Molan Award for Excellence in Apicultural Science at Apiculture New Zealand’s annual conference in Rotorua recently. The new award, presented for the first time last year to another Plant & Food Research scientist Dr Mark Goodwin, recognises outstanding contributions to science that advance the apiculture industry.

Plant & Food Research’s Pollination and Apiculture team leader David Pattemore says Barry Donovan has made an unparalleled contribution to the field of bee taxonomy in New Zealand and is held in high regard globally.

“There are a lot of people deserving recognition in this field but they will be hard pressed to find other contenders with the stature of the first two recipients. Barry literally wrote the book on New Zealand bees.”

Barry personally described 15 of our 29 native bee species and authored the taxonomic textbook ‘Fauna of New Zealand 57 – Apoidea’. He has retired from Plant & Food but still has a desk at the Lincoln research centre and continues to contribute his expertise to bee team projects as a consultant.