Robert E. Page Jr.

Robert E. Page Jr. (born 12 November 1949) is one of the foremost honey bee geneticists in the world and a Foundation Chair of Life Sciences of Arizona State University. An author of more than 250 research papers and articles, his work on the self-organizing regulatory networks of honey bees has been outlined in his book, "The Spirit of the Hive: The Mechanisms of Social Evolution," published by Harvard University Press in 2013. Page currently holds the titles of Arizona State University Provost Emeritus and Regents Professor Emeritus. He is also Chair and Professor Emeritus at the University of California-Davis and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.
Biography and Education.
Page was born in Bakersfield, CA and spent his childhood there until he attended high school in Porterville, California. He served in the U.S. Army from 1969-1972. With support from the G.I. Bill, he received his undergraduate degree in entomology, with a minor in chemistry, from San Jose State University in 1976. He was awarded his Ph.D. in entomology from University of California-Davis in 1980. He began his career as an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology with The Ohio State University in 1986, moving to the University of California-Davis in 1989, where he became chair for UC-Davis's Department of Entomology in 1999. He joined Arizona State University (ASU) in 2004 as founding director of ASU's School of Life Sciences, one of the first interdisciplinary academic units developed under President Michael Crow's vision of the "New American University."
His background is in behavior and population genetics and the focus of his current research is on the evolution of complex social behavior. Using the honey bee as a model, Professor Page has dissected bee's complex foraging division of labor at all levels of biological organization - from gene networks to complex social interactions. An internationally recognized scholar, he has published more than 230 research papers and articles. In 2005, he was listed as an ISI's Highly Cited author in plant and animal science - representing the top ½ percent of publishing researchers.
He served as provost of Arizona State University (2013-2015), and vice provost and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the largest college in the university (2011-2013). During this period he forged a platform to accelerate ASU’s transdisciplinary collaboration in the U.S. and Europe, advance educational reform, and jumpstart cutting-edge "virtual" learning formats. He also established ASU's Honey Bee Research Facility.
Scientific work.
Robert Page's background is in behavior and population genetics and the focus of his current research is on the evolution of complex social behavior. Using the honey bee as a model, he has dissected bee's complex foraging division of labor at all levels of biological organization - from gene networks to complex social interactions. His work, as well as that of his distinguished students, is outlined in his publication "The Spirit of the Hive: The Mechanisms of Social Evolution," released by Harvard University Press in 2013. As described on the fly leaf: "This book presents a comprehensive picture of the genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying the division of labor in honey bee colonies and explains how bees' complex social behavior has evolved over millions of years." His work has been cited in more than 18,000 publications and has an h-index value of 74.
Publications.
Journal Articles.
Robert Page has authored or coauthored more than 250 scientific studies or review articles on genetics and evolution of social insect behavior.