In the Arms of an Almond Tree

Feb 11, 2010

BSalexklein 5854
BSalexklein 5854
The first time I met Alexandra "Alex" Klein, she was perched in the arms of an almond tree in the Capay Valley, Yolo County.

It was Feb. 27, 2008.  As a visiting researcher with the Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley, she was working on almond pollination research with UC Berkeley conservation biologist Claire Kremen.

Klein had earlier (2003) received her Ph.D. in agroecology and zoology from the University of Göttingen, Germany.

Today Klein is a professor at the University of Lüneburg, Germany and continues to study conservation biology and ecological interactions.

And more good news--she's in the Yolo County area for approximately five weeks for continuing almond pollination research, and while here,  will present a lecture on the UC Davis campus.

Klein will speak on "Can Wild Pollinators Contribute, Augment, and Complement Almond Pollination in California?" on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at a UC Davis Department of Entomology noonhour seminar.

The seminar, set for 12:10 to 1 p.m., in 122 Briggs Hall, Kleiber Drive, is scheduled to be Webcast.  Folks can listen live here. Later her talk will be archived.

Klein will be hosted by her fellow researcher and colleague, pollination ecologist Neal Williams, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology.

On Feb. 17, however, Klein won't be up a tree, but at the lectern.



By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Author - Communications specialist

Attached Images:

ALEXANDRA KLEIN, shown here in the arms of an almond tree in the Capay Valley in February of 2008, will speak on

In the Arms of an Almond

A HONEY BEE foraging in a Capay Valley almond orchard on Feb. 27, 2008. This year's commercial almond season is almost here. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bee and an Almond Blossom