Ira Rubinoff

Ira Rubinoff (born 1938) is an American marine biologist and was a former director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Education

Ira Rubinoff attended Queens College, graduating in 1959, and went on to Harvard University. He would graduate from Harvard with a Master of Arts in 1961, followed by a Ph.D. in biology in 1963.

Research

As a marine biologist, Rubinoff was influenced by Ernst Mayr's in the early 1960s regarding the evolution of fishes at the Isthmus of Panama. Mayr assigned Rubinoff to travel to Panama, to study the evolution of various genera of fish of the region. Rubinoff pioneered research regarding the effect of the Panama Canal on the ocean's ecology and the evolution of animals within it.

Notable awards

Honorary Member, Association for Tropical Biology

Publications

Rubinoff, Ira. Eds. S. L. Sutton, T. C. Whitmore and A. C. Chadwick. A strategy for preserving tropical forests. In: Tropical Rain Forest: Ecology and Management. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications (1983): 465–476. Rubinoff, Ira, J. Graham and J. Motta. "Diving behavior of the sea snake Pelamis platurus in the Gulf of Panama - I Depth and Duration of Dives." Marine Biology. 1986. 91(2): 181–191. Rubinoff, Ira and Egbert G. Leigh, Jr. "Dealing with Diversity: The Smithsonian Tropical Research and Tropical Biology." Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 1990. 5(4): 115–118. Rubinoff, Ira and Nicholas Smythe. "A jungle kept for study." New Scientist. 1982. 95 (1315) 495–499.