Meet the New Project Apis m. - Costco Scholar!

Beekeeping community, get acquainted with this smiling face! Introducing Laura Brutscher, the new PAm-Costco Scholar. Laura is the recipient of Project Apis m.'s three-year $50,000/year award to pursue her PhD -- helping bees.

Laura Brutscher is a Ph.D. student in the Microbiology Department at Montana State University where she is investigating the role of microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi) in maintaining and disrupting colony health and how microbes may relate to the recent surge of honey bee losses. In addition, Laura will investigate what genes are essential for honey bee antiviral immunity. Laura is co-mentored by Dr. Michelle Flenniken, a virologist/ microbiologist investigating honey bee host-pathogen interactions, and Dr. Carl Yeoman, an expert on rumen/gastrointestinal microbiology in organisms ranging from humans to honey bees. Laura grew up on a dairy farm in Little Falls, MN, where her passion for nature and science developed early. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, with a major in biology in 2012 and joined the Molecular Biosciences graduate program at Montana State in August 2012. Since beginning her research, Laura has been actively involved in maintaining the university's honey bee colonies and sampling/surveying the honey bee-associated microbes in commercial colonies. She looks forward to sharing her research findings with both the scientific and beekeeping communities in order to improve honey bee health.

Congratulations, Laura!

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"I'm so excited to get this scholarship! It's wonderful! I'm so elated to have financial help. I will put it to good use" exclaimed Laura upon learning of her award.

"Her capacity to help us with what ails the bee is tremendous," said Christi Heintz, PAm's executive director. "We are pleased to have funding from Costco to help her pursue her exciting bee research. She's on the cutting edge."

"I want to thank you, Project Apis m. and Costco," states Dr. Flenniken. "Laura is a great student, hard worker and dedicated to honey bee research. I am very happy that she was selected as the fellowship recipient, and I am committed to her training and her success."