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Joining this episode is a team representing one of the 18 finalist in the Empire State Development and Cornell University’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement for “”. Grow-NY is a food innovation and agricultural technology business...
Joining this episode is a team representing one of the 18 finalist in the Empire State Development and Cornell University’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement for “Grow-NY”. Grow-NY is a food innovation and agricultural technology business challenge focused on enhancing the emerging food, beverage and agriculture innovation cluster in the Central New York, Finger Lakes and Southern Tier regions of the State.
Today’s guests, one of 199 teams competing for the $1-Million prize developed an innovative approach and product “Combplex” to fight the beekeeper’s #1 pest: The Varroa Mite.
First up is Jenn Smith from Grow-NY who introduces the competition and provides the background.
From Combplex, co-owners Hailey Scofield and Nathan Oaks join the episode. Hailey is a PhD candidate at Cornell University in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior where she studied honey bee thermoregulation and development under Thomas Seeley before transitioning to work with Professors Scott McArt and Cole Gilbert on more applied research on the impacts of transportation stress and development in commercial migratory beekeeping operations.
Nathan is currently a fifth-year PhD candidate at Cornell, where he studies Computational Biology with Professor Philipp Messer and looks forward to continuing to wear many hats as Combplex grows.
Websites and Links mentioned in the Podcast:
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This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help 
ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!
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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com
Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com
Thank you for listening!
Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"
Nathan's early childhood in the Philippines instilled in him an appreciation for the wonderful complexity of nature. After studying electrical engineering as well as natural sciences at Penn State, he worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry before realizing biology is his true passion. He subsequently moved to Seattle to join a cloud-computing big-data genomics startup. After that business reached the end of its runway, he worked as an engineer for various tech companies in California and New York.
Nathan and Hailey met at Cornell University taking a class on using game theory to model animal behavioral evolution. They have been collaborators since. Nathan left academia as a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate at Cornell, where he studied Computational Biology with Professor Philipp Messer.
