Keith Delaplane
Keith S. Delaplane, professor and extension entomologist, is a world-renowned expert in beekeeping, an industry that contributes more than $75 million to Georgia’s economy each year. He has developed integrated pest management strategies that address diseases, pests and other factors that threaten to destroy or impair bee colonies. His methods have been adopted by the beekeeping industry at home and abroad to manage major honeybee pests.
In 1992, Delaplane co-founded the Young Harris College Beekeeping Institute, which is now home to the Georgia Master Beekeeping Program, and a honey judge certification program offered in cooperation with the Welsh Beekeepers’ Association in the United Kingdom
In 2005, he worked in with the Georgia Department of Agriculture to develop a statewide plan to prepare Georgia’s emergency responders, beekeepers, and citizens for the arrival of Africanized bees. Today, he is an internationally recognized figure working diligently to find a solution for the decline of Honey Bee populations, an issue known as Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Delaplane, serving as project director, along with collaborators from other universities, recently earned The University of Georgia a $4.1 million award to begin mitigating the impacts of CCD on the world food supply. Additionally, Delaplane was selected as chairman and organizer of an expert panelreviewing the USDA’s five-year research plan for bees and pollination.
Delaplane is committed to making significant contributions to the art and science of beekeeping.He is the author of more than 200 publications, including First Lessons in Beekeeping, editor of the world’s most prestigious apicultural journal, and creator of the award-winning, internationally broadcasted television series, Honeybees and Beekeeping: A Year in the Life of an Apiary, which still airs after fifteen years. His website received more than 120,000 visits last year, and continues to be a testament to his value as a resource for both apiculturists and lay people.
For such contributions, Delaplane received the James I. Hambleton Memorial Award for Outstanding Research, the most prestigious award in North America for applied bee research.
County Extension Coordinator J. Keith Fielder captures Delaplane well in saying that “his willingness to look outside the box for inspiration and answers has allowed him to provide necessary and useful research-based information to an industry and an avocation which in recent times has been beset with enormous difficulty.”