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Joachim de Miranda

I am an associate professor of entomology, specialising in insect health, especially the pathogens and diseases of beneficial insects. My primary interest are the viruses that infect bees: their transmission, epidemiology, evolution and adaptive ecology, and how these are affected by internal and external factors, from long-term landscape-level changes in bee habitat and ecology to rapid virus population-genetic dynamic fluxes and evolution in controlled laboratory settings.

Presentation

My academic career has been defined by three passions: research, agriculture and travel. This led to a long career as a contract research scientist, working on other people's projects in many different research institutes world-wide, with both agriculture and viruses the common threads connecting these experiences. After a stint at Penn State University, I focused on the viruses of bees and at SLU I finally also found an institute that allowed me to focus entirely on research, and develop my own research programme. I have been one of the principal research scientists of the Honeybee Research Group at SLU since 2005.

Teaching

I teach several days every year in a few BSc, MSc and PhD level courses, including "Bees, Beekeeping and Pollination" (BI1320), "Molecular and Microbial Ecology" (BI1438), and "Writing Scientific Papers" (PNG0086), as well as the occasional ad hoc guest lecture in courses at other universities. I enjoy teaching, especially the interaction and feedback with the students. I always have plenty of scope for students to participate in my research, either as part of their course requirements or as research assistants.

Research

My research subjects include honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees, and how their communal pathosphere (i.e. the pathogens shared between different pollinators) and health are affected by a range of nutritional, chemical and physical stressors in both natural and cultivated landscapes.