Rate My Professor Silas Bossert

Silas Bossert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at Washington State University. He is an evolutionary biologist specialized in the biology of bees. Bossert collects bees in the Pacific Northwest as part of his research on native bee biology and evolution. He previously served as an assistant research professor at the institution before advancing to his current tenure-track role.

Bossert earned his PhD in Entomology from Cornell University, where he studied the natural history of bees and plants in Bryan Danforth's lab. Prior to joining Washington State University, he was a predoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Seán Brady's lab. His work includes contributions to the understanding of bee phylogeny, biogeography, and diversification, such as research on mining bees in the family Andrenidae. In 2026, he collaborated with colleagues in Texas and Kansas to identify and describe the new mining bee species Andrena cenizophila. Bossert maintains an active research program focused on bee systematics and evolutionary history.