Profile of Gene E. Robinson.

Abstract

Most researchers may not adhere to E. O. Wilson's sentiments, “Love the organisms for themselves first, then strain for general explanations, and, with good fortune, discoveries will follow. If they don't, the love and the pleasure will have been enough.” Instead, many researchers choose to follow a particular question as their passion and then select the most appropriate organism with which to work. But one scientist who fits Wilson's sentiment is Gene Robinson, the G. William Arends Professor of Integrative Biology in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and one of the world's foremost experts on the honey bee. In only one day, Robinson became smitten with these social insects and their mesmerizing combination of order and chaos. In the years since, he has devoted his research to uncovering the mechanisms that govern honey bee society, which rivals human society in terms of complexity and cohesion, and has focused principally on discerning how bees control their system of organized yet flexible division of labor. Fortunately, Robinson will not have to settle for the beauty of bees as his only reward because bees have proven to be a wonderful model system. “They're great because you can easily see how social behavior is influenced by environmental factors, such as removing all the foragers and seeing how the rest of the colony adapts,” says Robinson. “You can also see genetic influences, how bees of different genotypes do things different ways.” Through Robinson's research, many of the hormones, neurochemicals, brain pathways, and environmental cues that determine how bees transition from hive housekeepers to food gatherers are now known. Robinson, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005, is pursuing the genetic factors at work in division of labor, examining the interplay between gene expression and behavior. …