Juliet Osborne is an

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

in the UK. She is professor of applied ecology at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

and she looks at the health of

social insect Eusociality (from Greek εὖ ''eu'' "good" and social), the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generat ...

s and how they

pollinate Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...

plants.

Education and career

Osborne was educated at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, she graduated with a BA in

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

in 1989 and a PhD in

pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds ...

ecology in 1994. She was a postdoctoral researcher at

Rothamsted Research Rothamsted Research, previously known as the Rothamsted Experimental Station and then the Institute of Arable Crops Research, is one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, having been founded in 1843. It is located at Harp ...

and remained there, progressing to principal investigator in 2006. In 2012 she moved to the

Penryn Campus Penryn Campus (formerly Tremough Campus, Cornwall Campus and similar names) is a university campus in Penryn, Cornwall, England, UK. The campus is occupied by two university institutions: Falmouth University and the University of Exeter, with th ...

to be a senior lecturer. In 2013 she was appointed chair in applied ecology and in 2017 she was made director of Exeter University's Environment and Sustainability Institute.

Research

Osborne's research looks at the interactions between

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and the environment, and their influence on

ecosystem services Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. Th ...

. Her research has shown that diseases such as

deformed wing virus ''Deformed wing virus'' (DWV) is an RNA virus, one of 22 known viruses affecting honey bees. While most commonly infecting the honey bee, '' Apis mellifera'', it has also been documented in other bee species, like ''Bombus terrestris'', thus, i ...

and the microsporidian parasite ''

Nosema ceranae ''Nosema ceranae'' is a microsporidian, a small, unicellular parasite that mainly affects ''Apis cerana'', the Asiatic honey bee. Along with '' Nosema apis'', it causes the disease nosemosis, the most widespread of the diseases of adult honey b ...

'' can pass from managed

honeybee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmo ...

colonies to wild

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

colonies. To simulate the different pressures on a bee colony her team created BEEHAVE, a computer model to test how conditions such as availability of

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

and presence of

insecticide Insecticides are substances used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to b ...

s, can influence the health and survival of a honeybee hive. Osborne's group have used different

tracking Tracking may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage) * Tracking, composing music with music tracker software * Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...

techniques to look at social insects. They tracked honeybees with

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...

s and showed that they can forage far from their colony even when carrying diseases and they radiotagged Asian hornets in the UK to track their dispersal and locate their nests. She has also investigated pollination in food

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

s of economic importance such as

courgettes The zucchini (; plural: zucchini or zucchinis), courgette (; plural: courgettes) or baby marrow (''Cucurbita pepo'') is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are stil ...

and has researched the resources of different

oil seed rape Rapeseed (''Brassica napus ''subsp.'' napus''), also known as rape, or oilseed rape, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturally contains a ...

varieties that are available to pollinators, such as the amount of nectar and number of flowers. Osborne has also looked at whether the manipulation of flowering plants to produce seedless fruits,

parthenocarpy In botany and horticulture, parthenocarpy is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilisation of ovules, which makes the fruit seedless. Stenospermocarpy may also produce apparently seedless fruit, but the seeds are ac ...

, could be a way to produce crops without the need for pollination

Awards

Osborne, with collaborators at Exeter, was awarded the

BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body (NDPB), and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific rese ...

Innovator of the Year award for Social Impact in 2017 for their BEEHAVE model which was 'helping build pollinator resilience through informed land management and beekeeping'.

References

External links

University of Exeter Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Juliet Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women ecologists British ecologists Women entomologists British entomologists 21st-century British women scientists 21st-century British scientists 20th-century British women scientists 20th-century British scientists Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Exeter