2025 P Vit-Olivier Young Researcher Award in Pot-Honey Science

Abstract

The P Vit-Olivier Young Researcher Award in Pot-Honey Science is a once-per-lifetime recognition of excellence in new generations of pot-honey scientists up to 40 years old. Professor Patricia Vit is known for the first proposal of Stingless bee honey standards (Bee World, 2004), the book Pot-honey. A legacy of stingless bees (Springer, 2013), Premio Mujeres en Ciencia, Health Science (ACFIMAN, 2023), and her research group of Apitherapy and Bioactivity (APIBA) in the Food Science Department, Faculty of Pharmacy and Bioanalysis, Universidad de Los Andes (ULA), Mérida, Venezuela. New species of two stingless bees and one yeast were named after her: Partamona vitae Pedro and Camargo, 2003; Starmerella vitae A.R.O. Santos, P.B. Morais, Lachance & C.A. Rosa, 2018; and Scaptotrigona vitorum Engel, 2022. P Vit-Olivier started to analyze honey as a collaboration with Father Santiago López-Palacios who collected 26 samples while writing his book Catálogo para una Flora Apícola Venezolana. She believes that serving other colleagues is a good habit rewarding unexpected discoveries while mastering new techniques just for the pleasure to help. She organized the 2024 JMF Camargo International Symposium on Stingless Bees, Mérida, Venezuela, 26-29 June, and is the Founder Director of the online Route of Living Museums of Stingless Bees in the World –RUTA-MELI in short– where Professor Amelia Nicolas from the Central Bicol State University of Agriculture (CBSUA) is the General Director. This award aims boosting young scientists to accomplish their goals and best achievements, needed for discovery and innovation in pot-honey science.