Bruce Rinker
About Bruce's Work
A 10th-generation Virginian, Bruce is a forest ecologist, science educator, and conservationist who lives in the world-renowned Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He was elected a National Fellow of The Explorers Club in 1998, a Switzer Environmental Fellow in 2000, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences in 2002, and a Full Member of Sigma Xi in 2005. Bruce is also an adjunct professor in the Ecotourism and Sustainable Development Program at the University of Southern Maine and an adjunct scientist in charge of México programs at the Biodiversity Research Institute in Portland, ME. Bruce is science advisor for Sustenta Soluciones S.A. de C.V., Heel Habilidades A.C., and the Republic of Everyone México; a member of the board of directors for Naturalia, one of México’s largest conservation nonprofits focused on endangered species and ecosystems; and an international council advisor for Reforestamos México. Bruce is also a member of the research advisory board for the Amazon Conservatory of Tropical Studies (ACTS, Iquitos, Perú). He is co-editor and contributor to Forest Canopies (2004, Elsevier Press) and Gaia in Turmoil: Climate Change, Biodepletion, and Earth Ethics in an Age of Crisis (2010, MIT Press). His scientific expeditions include sites in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia. He has participated twice on the French-sponsored “Radeau des Cimes” mission (Cameroon and French Guiana). Bruce has received numerous science education awards and recognitions including “Outstanding Science Teacher” (Science Teachers Association of New York State), “Outstanding Biology Teacher” (National Association of Biology Teachers), and the “Environmental Education Award” from the County of Sarasota, FL. As a forest ecologist, Bruce has expertise in nutrient cycling and plant-insect interactions. Further, his recent field projects have focused on the impacts of environmental toxins such as plastics, petroleum, and mercury on marine and coastal ecosystems. Bruce has been co- or primary investigator on a number of major grants, including an Ecological Circuitry Collaboratory grant from the National Science Foundation. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Society for Conservation Biology, and the National Association of Environmental Professionals.
