Nina Sokolov is a disease ecologist who fell in love with the world of insects when she started to draw them. With a microscope and a pen, she began studying pinned specimens from museum collections and becoming familiar with the anatomy of insects. Nina is getting her Ph.D. in biology at UC Berkeley where she studies bees and their viruses to understand how diseases can be contributing to declines of these important pollinators. She still uses her artistic skills to determine the fine scale differences between species that closely resemble one another. Additionally, she has begun illustrating native bee coloring book pages to teach kids about the diversity of bees. Nina uses art in her science today to learn about the species she’s studying, to communicate her findings to scientists and to the public, and to get people excited about insect conservation