FRANKFURT. Goethe University has appointed Dr. Jana Dobelmann Professor of Evolutionary Ecology of Hymenoptera, effective October 1, 2026. This group of insects includes bees, which are essential for functioning ecosystems and global food security. Dobelmann focuses on viruses in honeybees and wild bees and on how introduced species and new transmission pathways threaten their health. “I investigate how trade, land use and invasive species alter the spread of pathogens among bees and other pollinators – both within individual species and between species. I want to understand how emerging pathogens, environmental change and the insects’ microbiome interact, and why these factors put pollinators under increasing pressure. To do so, I combine molecular, population-genetic and experimental approaches,” she explains.

The professorship is based at the Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Diversity (OED) in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and at the Institute for Bee Research (IfB). The IfB will therefore be home to two research groups from now on. With the appointment, Goethe University is strengthening the IfB, whose new building, funded by the Polytechnic Society, recently opened. Dobelmann signed her appointment agreement at the opening of the new building in Oberursel in the presence of University President Enrico Schleiff, Dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences Sven Klimpel and Volker Mosbrugger, President of the Polytechnic Society.

“Jana Dobelmann expands bee research at the IfB to include wild bee ecology and molecular epidemiology. This complements the institute’s longstanding research on honeybees with new perspectives on the ecology and health of pollinators. At the same time, her work strengthens the links with the OED’s environmental research priorities. Our goal is to further develop the IfB as a center for integrative pollinator research and to strengthen the links between scientific findings and applications in agriculture, nature conservation and beekeeping,” says Klimpel.

About Jana Dobelmann
Jana Dobelmann (*1992) investigates how environmental change affects the spread of pathogens among bees and other pollinators. She studied biological sciences at the University of Münster, Germany, and earned her PhD at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, where she investigated interactions between invasive ants and honeybees. She subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Ulm University, Germany, where she investigated virus transmission between honeybees and wild bumblebees.

About the Professorship

The W1 tenure-track professorship is part of Goethe University’s strategic efforts to strengthen bee research as a key component in addressing global challenges related to biodiversity, ecosystem health and pollinator research. The professorship will also strengthen collaboration with other disciplines and consolidate cooperation with non-university institutions such as the Senckenberg institutes, the Institute for Social-Ecological Research and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.