Thomas Seeley

Emeritus Professor, Neurobiology and Behavior

Dr. Thomas D. Seeley is the Horace White Professor in Biology at Cornell University. He is based in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, where he teaches courses on animal behavior and does research on the behavior and social life of honey bees. His work is summarized in three books: Honeybee Ecology (1985), The Wisdom of the Hive (1995), and Honeybee Democracy (2010).

Awards & Honors

Public Lecture in Biology 2015 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Merrill Presidential Teaching Award 2014 Cornell University
Plenary Speaker 2014 International Behavioral Ecology Congress
Public Lecture 2014 Utah Symposium in Science and LIterature
R. Melville Cramer Lecture 2014 Dartmouth College
Foundation Lecture 2013 Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation
Sir Richard E. Southwick Lecture 2011 Oxford University
Elected Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society 2008 Animal Behavior Society
Distinguished Lecturer, Keck Center for Behavioral Biology 2007 North Carolina State University
John T. Emlen Lecture 2007 University of Wisconsin
Plenary Speaker, Honey Bee Genomics and Biology Workshop 2007 Cold Spring Harbor Lab
Felix Santschi Distinguished Lecture 2004 University of Zurich
Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2001 American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Gold Medal for the Best Science Book (The Wisdom of the Hive) 1998 Apimondia

Contact Information

W301 Seeley G. Mudd Hall

(607) 279-5498

tds5 [at] cornell.edu

Thomas in the news

A crevase in a tree trunk contains two honeycombs and clusters of bees

News

May 29, 2019

Book reveals wild honeybees’ biology, with insights for beekeepers

Arnot Teaching and Research Forest
Neurobiology and Behavior
Entomology

News

August 21, 2018

New course trains veterinary students to protect pollinators

Cornell faculty members are offering the first honeybee health course at Cornell for veterinary student; the bees are important for New York’s agricultural economy.

Department of Entomology
Agriculture
Entomology