Alison Mercer
New Zealand zoologist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alison Ruth Mercer ONZM (born 1954) is a New Zealand zoologist based at the University of Otago,[1] with a particular interest in the brain physiology of bees.[2][3] She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.[4]
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Alison Mercer | |
|---|---|
Mercer in 1987 | |
| Born | 1954 (age 71–72) |
| Alma mater | University of Otago |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Zoology |
| Institutions | University of Otago |
| Thesis | |
Education
Mercer received her PhD in zoology in 1979 from the University of Otago. Her thesis Visceral innervation in molluscs was concerned with molluscs.[5]
Academic career
She has been an emeritus professor at the University of Otago since 2018.[6] Her research interests span from understanding the brain[7][8] and behaviour of honey bees, development genetics, as well as learning and memory.[9][10][11]
She has repeatedly made headlines in the popular press with her studies of the effects of chemicals on bees.[12][13][14] She was nicknamed the "Queen of all pheromones" by Otago Daily Times for her work in discovering that exposing a young bee to the pheromone of a queen bee actually alters the composition of the young bee's brain.[15] She has also published on the varroa mite a problematic parasite of honeybees.[16][17]
Awards and honours
In the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours, Mercer was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to science.[18]
In 2022, Mercer was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[19]
Selected works
- Fanny Mondet; Joachim R de Miranda; Andre Kretzschmar; Yves Le Conte; Alison R. Mercer (21 August 2014). "On the front line: quantitative virus dynamics in honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies along a new expansion front of the parasite Varroa destructor". PLOS Pathogens. 10 (8) e1004323. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PPAT.1004323. ISSN 1553-7366. PMC 4140857. PMID 25144447.
- A.R. Mercer; R. Menzel (1982). "The effects of biogenic amines on conditioned and unconditioned responses to olfactory stimuli in the honeybeeApis mellifera". Journal of Comparative Physiology A. 145 (3): 363–368. doi:10.1007/BF00619340. ISSN 0340-7594.
- Daniel Flanagan; Alison R. Mercer (January 1989). "An atlas and 3-D reconstruction of the antennal lobes in the worker honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae)". Arthropod Structure & Development. 18 (2–3): 145–159. doi:10.1016/0020-7322(89)90023-8. ISSN 1467-8039.
- Kyle T Beggs; Kelly A Glendining; Nicola M Marechal; Vanina Vergoz; Ikumi Nakamura; Keith N Slessor; Alison R Mercer (7 February 2007). "Queen pheromone modulates brain dopamine function in worker honey bees". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (7): 2460–2464. Bibcode:2007PNAS..104.2460B. doi:10.1073/PNAS.0608224104. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1892986. PMID 17287354.
