Etya Amsalem

Early Career Award

Etya Amsalem is an Associate Professor of Entomology at Pennsylvania State University. She obtained her MSc and PhD from Tel Aviv University, Israel, under the guidance of Abraham Hefetz, focusing on the chemical regulation of worker sterility in bumble bees. Supported by the Binational Agriculture Research and Development fund of Israel and the US, she pursued her postdoctoral research at Penn State University with Christina Grozinger. During this time, she expanded her research to investigate the genomic mechanisms governing diapause and carbon dioxide regulation in bees. Following a brief stint at the University of Haifa, Israel, where she collaborated with Eyal Privman on the genetic regulation of social organization in fire ants, she returned to Penn State University as a faculty member in 2016.

Etya Amsalem’s research centers on social insects and lies in the intersection of chemical ecology, physiology, genetics, behavior, and evolution. Recognized with an NSF-Career award for investigating sterility behavior in social insects, she studies pheromones regulating reproduction and social behavior in bees, the molecular mechanisms underlying pheromone production and perception, and the evolution of chemical signals. Additionally, she is committed to enhancing bee health by investigating the impact of various environmental stressors on their survival and performance, particularly during the critical winter-diapause period, which serves as a pivotal juncture for annual bee survival.