Honeybees, especially crucial for their pollination services, are vital to agriculture and the environment, but bee breeding was largely a matter of chance until Professor Harry H. Laidlaw Jr., (1907-2003) the father of honeybee genetics, developed artificial insemination technology. His work enabled selective breeding of honeybees and the fundamental study of insect genetics. In 2001, the Ƶ Bee Biology Laboratory was named the “” in his honor.
