James C. Nieh
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| James C. Nieh | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🏫 Education | Harvard University (BA); Cornell University (PhD) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Honey bee stop signal; social learning of the honey bee waggle dance; social bee communication; pollinator health |
| 🏅 Awards | Hambleton Award for Excellence in Apicultural Research; Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society |
| 🌐 Website | labs |
James C. Nieh is a biologist whose research focuses on communication, cognition, and health in social bees. He is a professor in the Department of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution and an associate dean in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego.[1][2] His work has examined how honey bees and other social bees communicate about food, danger, predators, and environmental stressors, and how pesticides, pathogens, nutrition, and artificial light affect bee behavior and pollinator health.[1]
Nieh is known for research on the honey bee stop signal, social learning in the honey bee waggle dance, and defensive communication between Asian honey bees and hornets.[3][4][5] His research and public explanations of bee communication have been covered by outlets including Science News, Popular Science, KPBS, The Naked Scientists, and Washington Post coverage reprinted by The Spokesman-Review.[4][6][7][8]
Education and career
Nieh received a Bachelor of Arts in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University in 1997.[9] He held an NSF-NATO postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Würzburg and was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows from 1998 to 2001.[9][10]
Nieh joined UC San Diego in 2001.[9] His laboratory studies honey bees, stingless bees, bumble bees, and hornets using approaches from behavioral ecology, chemical ecology, animal communication, and neuroethology.[1] His UC San Diego research profile describes the laboratory's two central areas as the evolution of communication in highly social bees and honey bee health.[1]
Research
In 2010, Nieh reported that honey bees use a "stop signal" when foragers encounter danger. The signal can reduce recruitment to risky food sources, functioning as negative feedback against the positive feedback of the waggle dance.[11] Popular-science coverage described the work as showing how individual danger experiences can alter collective foraging decisions in a honey bee colony.[3]
Nieh and collaborators later studied defensive communication in Asian honey bees. A 2016 study in PLOS Biology reported that honey bee inhibitory signals can vary with predator threat severity and can function as colony-level alarm signals.[12] Popular coverage described these signals as a warning system that helps bees respond to hornet attacks.[5][13]
In 2023, Nieh and collaborators reported in Science that young honey bees learn aspects of the waggle dance by observing older dancers.[14] Science News, Popular Science, KPBS, and Washington Post coverage described the work as evidence that social learning improves a complex communication system in Apis mellifera.[4][6][7][8]
Nieh has also published on the effects of human-associated stressors on bees, including pesticides, pathogens, nutrition, and artificial light.[1] Public coverage of this work has discussed neonicotinoid effects on honey bee flight, possible risks of "bee safe" pesticide labels, and work on honey bee health treatments.[15][16][17]
Public engagement and writing
Nieh has communicated bee science to public audiences through interviews, lectures, podcasts, and essays. He was a guest on the Getting Curious episode "How Can We Be Less Rude To Bees?"[18] His essay "To Nourish and Protect," published by UC San Diego Magazine in spring 2025, discussed the public value of federally funded biological research.[19]
His book The Language of Bees, scheduled for publication by Princeton University Press in 2026, presents social bees as complex communicators and discusses honey bee waggle dancing, stingless bee communication, eavesdropping, defense, and the evolutionary pressures that shape bee signals.[2]
Honors and awards
Nieh was elected a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society in 2017.[2]
Selected works
- Nieh, James C. (2010). "A negative feedback signal that is triggered by peril curbs honey bee recruitment." Current Biology. 20(4): 310–315. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.12.060.
- Tan, Ken; Dong, Shihao; Liu, Xiwen; Wang, Chao; Li, Jianjun; Nieh, James C. (2016). "Honey bee inhibitory signaling is tuned to threat severity and can act as a colony alarm signal." PLOS Biology. 14(3): e1002423. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002423.
- Dong, Shihao; Lin, Tao; Nieh, James C.; Tan, Ken (2023). "Social signal learning of the waggle dance in honey bees." Science. 379(6636): 1015–1018. doi:10.1126/science.ade1702.
- Nieh, James C. (2026). The Language of Bees. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691204895.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "James Nieh". UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Nieh, James C. The Language of Bees. Bookshop.org. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-20489-5. Retrieved June 25, 2026. Search this book on
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Smith, Chris (February 14, 2010). "Bees produce stop signal to protect hive-mates from danger". The Naked Scientists. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Milius, Susan (March 10, 2023). "Honeybees waggle to communicate. But to do it well, they need dance lessons". Science News. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Andrews, Robin (March 28, 2016). "Asian Honey Bees Use Sophisticated Vibrating Headbutts To Alert Others To Hornet Attacks". IFLScience. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Baisas, Laura (March 9, 2023). "Older bees teach younger bees the 'waggle dance'". Popular Science. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Fudge, Thomas (March 13, 2023). "Biologist says bee language is learned, not just innate". KPBS Public Media. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Grandoni, Dino (March 9, 2023). "Bees teach their babies how to dance". The Spokesman-Review. The Washington Post. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "James C. Nieh curriculum vitae". University of California, San Diego. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ "Former Junior Fellow James Nieh receives the Hambleton Award for Excellence in Apicultural Research". Harvard Society of Fellows. October 20, 2025. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Nieh, James C. (2010). "A negative feedback signal that is triggered by peril curbs honey bee recruitment". Current Biology. 20 (4): 310–315. Bibcode:2010CBio...20..310N. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.12.060. PMID 20153197.
- ↑ Tan, Ken; Dong, Shihao; Liu, Xiwen; Wang, Chao; Li, Jianjun; Nieh, James C. (2016). "Honey bee inhibitory signaling is tuned to threat severity and can act as a colony alarm signal". PLOS Biology. 14 (3). doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002423. PMC 4801313. PMID 27014876. Unknown parameter
|article-number=ignored (help) - ↑ Morell, Virginia (March 25, 2016). "Video: Huge enemy spotted! The surprisingly sophisticated warning buzzes of bees". Science. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Dong, Shihao; Lin, Tao; Nieh, James C.; Tan, Ken (2023). "Social signal learning of the waggle dance in honey bees". Science. 379 (6636): 1015–1018. Bibcode:2023Sci...379.1015D. doi:10.1126/science.ade1702. PMID 36893231 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Jennewein, Chris (April 26, 2017). "Common Pesticide Damages Honey Bees' Ability to Fly, UCSD Finds". Times of San Diego. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Anderson, Erik (April 11, 2019). "UCSD Researcher: 'Bee Safe' Label May Not Live Up To Promise". KPBS Public Media. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Sapeda, Sarah (January 21, 2020). "Dinner Party Fodder: UCSD Research on Honeybees". San Diego Magazine. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ "How Can We Be Less Rude To Bees? with Professor James Nieh". Earwolf. April 18, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Nieh, James C. (April 28, 2025). "Federally Funded Research Nourishes and Protects America". UC San Diego Today. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
External links
References
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