Dr. Samuel Ramsey’s Beeline to Advance Pest Research

Dr. Samuel Ramsey

No successful career is a walk in the park. Along the way there are bumps, bruises and a small internal voice buzzing with fears of failure. But, according to entomologist Dr. Samuel Ramsey, what matters most is not what happens to you, but how you respond.

In his life, Ramsey has responded through his passion for science, like learning about pests and entomology at a young age and wanting to make a difference in spaces that crave more diversity and peculiarity.

Ramsey, who is an endowed assistant professor of entomology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, sat down with PCT at PestWorld 2024 in Denver, Colo., to learn what he’s been up to the since his PCT magazine debut in 2012, and his hopes for the next 12 years.

BUSY BEE. Before Ramsey started working in academia, he began his career at American Pest, Fulton, Md., where he helped make real world research discoveries in entomology. Since then, he said his experience in that role has helped him balance applied and academic work concurrently.

Now an endowed assistant professor of entomology at UC, Boulder, he said he was selected specifically for having that interdisciplinary skillset and pest management background.

“The people who I worked for at American Pest were incredible mentors to me and helped me understand the elements of the pest control industry that make it unique, understanding your return on investment and how there has to be an immediate return to it,” he said.

Earning his doctorate degree in entomology from the University of Maryland College Park, Ramsey is now widely known for his scientific contributions with Varroa mites (Varroa destructor), which is one of the top three economically expensive invasive pests on the planet, he said, which ultimately affecting the bee population.

But getting his Ph.D. had its share of challenges, Ramsey said.

“I have been through enough that has shaken my confidence and having to find the capacity within myself that I had the potential to do all of these great things,” he said. “There were people telling me that I wasn’t the type of person who should get a Ph.D.”

Choosing to ignore sideline critics, Rasmey was able to lead research on discovering that Varroa mites were feeding on bee livers. He structured an entire project around targeting the parasite exactly where it feeds to disrupt the capacity to get nutrients from its meal, hopefully reducing its population size enough to collapse.

“These parasites were thought to feed on the bee’s blood, like a vampire, and what we didn’t understand was this creature is like a little mosquito, grabbing onto bees and sucking out the blood and caused illnesses that lead to bees’ death,” Ramsey said.

As a professor, he said he can expand his thought processes to come up with creative ways to conduct research, domestically and internationally, and make his scientific discoveries accessible to the public. Through these pathways, he is able to help drive forward the public’s understanding of bee health and pest management.

HAMMERING THE RESEARCH GAVEL. Ramsey is currently sounding the alarm on a new invasive pest making its way to the U.S. from Southeast Asia, called the Tropilaelaps mite. He said that since Tropilaelaps mites aren’t backed by stacks of research, he decided to start working with beekeepers to make them aware of the pest.

In turn, the beekeeping community helped Ramsey continue his research by raising money for him to travel to Asia to study the organism, which, he said, felt like his own personal presidential campaign.

“They started raising money for me like I was running for president,” he said. “Around $98,000 was raised and all of the funds have been able to go toward studying this parasite, providing some of the first data available for novel forms of control for this organism, both chemical and nonchemical, and that work is continuing on today.”

The Ramsey Research Foundation was created to house the funds, which allows him to conduct research on issues affecting pollinator health as well as building and operating advanced pollinator research facilities in international locations that require an investment in social change.

While doing an international project in Thailand, Ramsey said he was able to see firsthand how passionate the Indigenous people were about their connection with bees. Additionally, he saw how when those bees are unhealthy, they migrate into people’s homes and impair their ability to continue their livelihoods, causing life-threating situations.

Ramsey’s most recent project, the Honey Bee-nome Project, takes a closer look at the genome of obscure bee species that are not sequenced to contemporary standards.

“What typically happens with the bees is a parasite shows up, and it’s something we know nothing about,” he said. “We spend years figuring out all of the details about it and [by then] it’s already been established and becomes more difficult to get rid of. The data from this project will be available for open access to any government body or individual that would like to read it.”

Ramsey in the field.

STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD. One reason why Ramsey said he has been able to accomplish so much in a short time period is because of his curiosity to think outside of the box and stand out from the crowd in his work.

“We have been told that when an individual goes into a professional space, there is a specific way we need to dress, a certain way our hair and clothes need to look,” he said. “The problem is when you have a whole convoy of individuals speaking the same way and thinking the same way, they’re going to ask the same question and reach the same conclusion.”

Ramsey said multiple studies have shown that groups of researchers who have diverse qualities are able to consistently outperform groups of researchers that have similar educational degrees and have attained greater levels of accomplishments.

“Bringing an individual in that’s different from the rest forces people to ask new questions and reinvestigate their own assumptions,” he said.

He said he believes the pest management industry would benefit heavily from having peculiar people in roles that help make a difference in the industry. “The more that we promote individuals thinking differently, the more benefit we are going to see,” he said.

THE DECADE TO COME. Ramsey said one of his goals over the next 12-years is to increase public access to science and research, noting that the average cost of one scientific article is between $24 to $48.

“I have spent a lot of my time thinking about how to democratize the truth,” he said. “I work really hard to make sure the work that comes out of my lab is going to be open access so I pay on the front end to make sure people can read any of our articles.”

Additionally, he uses local and national media appearances to share knowledge and spread awareness about critical pest issues. Ramsey has appeared on Hulu’s docuseries “Your Attention Please,” as well as in the Washington Post, NPR, CNN, Wired, the Weather Channel, CBS This Morning, Khan Academy, Seeker, Crash Course, The Today Show and more.

Other resources for easy access research, according to Ramsey, is social media and he’s no stranger to using it for content creation about his research projects.

“I want to make knowledge really accessible, so I want to spend more time on social media making sure the younger generation is learning more about entomology and careers in pest management,” he said.