Pat Willmer

Pat Willmer
EducationUniversity of Cambridge
Scientific career
WorkplacesUniversity of Cambridge
University of Oxford
University of St Andrews
Thesis Neuronal adaptations to osmotic stress in a bivalve mollusc (Mytilus edulis)  (1978)
John Treherne

Patricia 'Pat' Gillian Willmer is an entomologist and ecologist in the UK. She is emeritus professor of zoology at the University of St Andrews and is an expert in pollination.

Career and research

Willmer studied for a B.A. degree at the University of Cambridge, and then continued to work in Cambridge for her PhD in neurophysiology. Her doctoral work was supervised by John Treherne, and funded by the Science Research Council and New Hall College, Cambridge. Willmer completed her PhD in 1978, and published her work in three papers in the The Journal of Experimental Biology that same year. While her research began in the area of neurobiology she later moved into invertebrate physiology and insect plant interactions. Willmer was a research fellow in Cambridge, and later a lecturer in invertebrate zoology at the University of Oxford, before moving to the University of St Andrews.

She has researched pollination biology many years and she supports agricultural environmental schemes such as wildflower strips to support pollinating insects and enhance crop pollination.

Some of her interesting findings include flowers can change colour such as the legume Desmodium setigerum which changes from lilac to white to turquoise after being visited by a pollinating bee; and acacia plants that manipulate the ants that defend them, releasing a compound mimicking the ant alarm pheromone when they flower so that pollinating insects such as bees can visit.

Willmer was elected to the council of the Linnean Society of London in 2009.

Selected works

References

  1. ↑ "ISNI database P.G. Willmer" – via ISNI.
  2. ↑ "Patricia Gillian Willmer - University of St Andrews". risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  3. ↑ Willmer, P. G. (1978). "Electrophysiological Correlates of Ionic and Osmotic Stress In An Osmoconforming Bivalve (Mytilus Edulis)". J Exp Biol. 77: 181–205. doi:10.1242/jeb.77.1.181.
  4. 1 2 "Environmental Physiology of Animals, 2nd Edition | Wiley". Wiley.com. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  5. ↑ "Announcement of Honorary International Associates of the Editorial Board". Integrative and Comparative Biology. 47: 9–12. 2007. doi:10.1093/icb/icm048.
  6. ↑ "Bees are worth billions to farmers across the globe, study suggests". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 17 June 2015. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  7. ↑ "Flowers change colour and back again to advertise their opening hours". Science. 15 June 2009. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  8. ↑ "When Allies Are Too Zealous". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  9. ↑ "221st Anniversary Meeting of the Linnean Society" (PDF). The Linnean. October 2009. pp. 59–50.
  10. ↑ Willmer, Pat (1985). Bees, ants and wasps: the British Aculeates. Field Studies Council. ISBN 978-0916422585.
  11. ↑ "Invertebrate relationships patterns animal evolution | Entomology". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  12. ↑ Willmer, Pat (25 July 2011). Pollination and Floral Ecology. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12861-0.