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DANIEL I. RUBENSTEIN

Present Position

Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Director, Program in Environmental Studies, Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton University

Chapter Affiliation

Princeton University

Background Information

CV
Biography

Statement

Sigma Xi is the Scientific Research Honor Society. I’ve been a member ever since I was elected Fellow while in graduate school.  My students and I have benefited by receiving small grants from the society and I’ve enjoyed reading the American Scientist, a first-class journal that makes science understandable and compelling to scientists across all disciplines. Moreover, I’ve served as the President of the Princeton Chapter where I, along with Rush Holt, a former member of the US Congress and currently the President of AAAS, created a ‘Science Advisor’s Program’ in which scientists from local universities or science related companies were given ‘company’ time to meet with student, teachers and members of the Princeton chapter insuring that questions posed were answered and that hands-on class projects were enriched. This network helped transform science learning in New Jersey’s Mercer County schools and enhanced the ‘science kits’ that school districts were beginning to deploy.

Initiatives like ‘Science Advisors’ goes to the heart of Sigma Xi’s mission, one that champions science, makes it equally accessible to all by building enduring partnerships that give teachers confidence in mastering experiential education and by encouraging students to learn by doing.  But like most successful innovations in science education, it did not go viral producing widespread systemic change. National and international societies such as Sigma Xi need to figure out ways to identify and tune educational initiatives so that they are easy to adopt and easy to spread. As a regional director I will work with others to assess what innovations are being fostered by local chapters so that they can be shaped into sustainable programs that help schools better educate the next generation of students about science, and technology and spur on those with passion and ability to become scientists and engineers. As chair of a science department for 23 years while keeping my lab humming, I didn’t need to have all the answers.  But I did need to have the ability to learn from good people around me, separate the electrifying from the ordinary and transform seductive ideas into workable realities. As regional director, I will draw on these skills and intuitions to foster sustainable change in science and in the Society.

I will also help tackle other important issues that face the Society as well as the state of science and the health of the planet. Ideally, these three domains will become intertwined as we move forward because what the Society does to improve science and its applications should also help improve the Society’s visibility, impact and desirability, making it a magnet for scientists young and old so they can construct networks that spur on its success. There are likely no silver bullets for creating this integrated tapestry, nor are their likely solutions that will work for all.  Some chapters may be located in areas where seminars, dinners and meetings are already exhausting and new innovations will be needed to make the Society relevant and impactful. In other locales, however, enhancing intellectual activity and enriching the minds and lives of practicing scientists and the general public may have powerful impacts.  Similarly, helping students at all levels become better scientists so that they can follow traditional trajectories towards research careers matches the meritorious and honorific dimension of the society. This trajectory will continue to receive my highest support, but I will also invest in efforts to identify new ways of diversifying Sigma Xi’s efforts, multiply the trajectories available to scientists at all career stages and create opportunities for scientists to self-organize and develop innovation networks. I will also seek to identify ways of making people scientifically literate so they can make wise personal and public decisions and I will also champion those wanting to apply science for social and environmental good. And lastly, my extensive experience in engaging multiple publics worldwide in working with scientists to conserve biodiversity will propel me to make Sigma Xi the driving force for putting real science into ‘citizen science.’ As regional director, my overall aim will be to make Sigma Xi an honor society of and for all types of scientists who want to harness science to create new knowledge and apply this knowledge to make our planet a richer, a more equitable and more a sustainable place to live. 

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