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Dan Rubenstein has been a FoHVOS trustee since the early days. He is the Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology and served as Chair of Princeton University’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology for 23 years. He received his B.S. from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. from Duke University before receiving NSF-NATO and King’s College Junior Research Fellowships for post-doctoral studies at Cambridge University. Since coming to Princeton, he has received NIH and NSF research grants, the prestigious Presidential Young Investigator Award, has been elected Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received Princeton University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. He spent a year at Oxford University as the George Eastman Professor. He also just completed his term as President of the Animal Behavior Society. He has co-edited two books, “Current Problems in Sociobiology” and “Ecological Aspects of Social Evolution” and has published over 125 articles.
Dr. Rubenstein studies how environmental variation and individual differences shape social behavior, social structure, and the dynamics of populations. He has special interests in all species of wild horses, zebras and asses, and has done field work on them throughout the world. He has extended his work to measuring the effects of environmental change, including the changes wrought by management and by global warming, on behavior. Studies are underway measuring the impact of wildlife and livestock on African grassland ecosystems and of wild horses on a frontline barrier island habitat so that effective conservation and management strategies and policies can be developed.
Rubenstein is also active in working with elementary and secondary school teachers to improve the teaching of science in American schools. Along with former Congressman Rush Holt, he co- sponsored the development of the Sigma Xi supported Science Advisor Program. This program provides 61 local school districts in the Princeton, NJ area with resident scientists from industry or academia who build teacher confidence by supplying insights, sources of content and leading workshops on how to meld “hands-on” and “minds-on” learning. He is a leading proponent of ‘Citizen Science’, especially with students and teachers. As a member of Princeton University’s Teacher Preparation Program he has organized experiential learning field classes that have involved many Hopewell Valley teachers. In Kenya he also works with pastoral communities to develop a data gathering scout program as well as curricular modules for local schools to raise awareness about the plight of the endangered Grevy’s zebra.
Dan has lived in Pennington with his wife Nancy since 1981.
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