The University of Kansas
An Official Employee Publication From the Office of University Relations
Longtime professor's bee research wins publishing award
KU entomologist produced definitive work on bees
The Johns Hopkins University Press recently received a major publishing industry award for a work by KU entomologist Charles D. Michener.
Michener, called one of the greatest entomologists of the 20th century by Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, authored The Bees of the World, which won the Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for 2000.
The annual award is given for an outstanding professional, reference or scholarly work published by one of the association’s members.
Charles D. Michener
James D. Jordan, director of the Johns Hopkins press, calls it the publishing industry’s equivalent of the Emmy.
Michener is distinguished professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator emeritus of insects for the KU Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center.
He is one of only two Kansans who belong to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, a private society of distinguished scholars chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1863 to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. The other is Tom Taylor, KU professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Much of the world’s research on bees other than honeybees has been done at KU by Michener and his students.
Michener, who retired from teaching in 1989, continues his research on bees and on the origin and evolution of social behavior.
He began working on The Bees of the World in 1989 with a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to restudy the evolution and classification of bees. The book was published in 2000.
The Bees of the World is the first and only comprehensive worldwide treatment of all groups of bees — covering 1,200 genera and subgenera and including more than 16,000 species.
The work is illustrated with 48 color photos of bees and more than 500 black-and-white drawings and photographs that depict behavior, detailed morphology and ecology.
University Archives photo
KU entomologist Charles Michener recently received a publishing honor for his book The Bees of the World. This 1959 photo shows him at work.