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
Candidate Statement
I’m a behavioral ecologist who studies how animals make decisions, especially in relation to solving problems associated with mating, socializing, cooperating, competing, and moving about landscapes acquiring resources. I then use the underlying rules that govern these decisions to explore how the resulting actions shape societies and help coordinate collectives. While working in many varied environments and cultures, I have learned to appreciate that wild animals and people are often intertwined, sometimes for a common good, but sometimes for personal gain at the expense of another’s loss. By understanding how environments shape the decisions of animals and motivate people who share landscapes with wild species to meet their needs, I have developed an awareness that the knowledge ‘pure science’ often creates, can usually be put to practical use that that does environmental and social good. As a result, I work with NGOs and governmental groups to help develop policies that bolster livelihoods while also enabling species to sustain themselves. For my efforts, Sigma Xi awarded me the McGovern Science and Society Award. Presenting my story at the national meeting galvanized a discussion of how the Society could become a champion of such connectivity. And it inspired me to become more active in Sigma Xi.
In my academic sphere I’ve served as president of the Animal Behavior Society (ABS), served as the chair of the Rangeland Section of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and now serve on both the councils of the ESA and AAAS where we are creating working groups to examine ways to create alternatives towards STEM careers for secondary students as well as undergrads and graduate students in academia. In addition, to publishing many highly cited research papers, I’ve also invested in becoming a stimulating teacher. In fact, by mid-career I received Princeton University’s Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching.
My lifelong focus on education and outreach has reconnected me to Sigma Xi. Early on I was president of the Princeton Chapter for many years so I understood the value of the ‘local’ nature of Sigma Xi. As president, I collaborated with Rush Holt (later our congress person and president of AAAS) to create the ‘Science Advisor’ program and connected each school in Mercer County, NJ to a local industry or academic scientist to help them understand and deploy the ‘science kits’ that were the rage at the time. Thus, later in life when asked to run for Sigma Xi’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, I did so because I thought my experience with doing science and extending it to teaching and outreach would help the Society expand its mission. Now I stand ready to take the next step. If elected President, I would work closely with both local chapters, which cherish their independence and stimulates creativity, and Sigma Xi ‘central’ team to develop strategies and mechanisms to help the society and all its parts to become an honor society that supports and rewards scientists through the many stages of their careers.
I have crafted a tapestry here that highlights my many scientific accomplishments and why I do science not in an ivory tower, but in a way that enables me to take what I learn, and when appropriate, apply it to improving the natural world and the people who interact with and impact nature. In that same spirit, my experiences and insights are what has shaped the mission I want to use to better define Sigma Xi as an honor society that supports its members from their initial contact with science, to being elected to the society and then as the science they do progresses throughout their lives, to being honored for their impressive and impactful accomplishments.