A native Virginian, Dr. Rinker is an ecologist, educator, and explorer who is committed to helping establish a sustainable environmental link between people and culture. In August 2009, Dr. Rinker became the Science Department Chairman of North Cross School in Roanoke, Virginia. Previously, from 2004 to 2009, he was the Environmental Lands Division Director for Pinellas County, supervising a staff of 50 personnel and 500 volunteers engaged in long-term management of nearly 16,000 acres of county-owned environmentally sensitive lands and waterways. He received his doctorate in environmental studies from Antioch University Graduate School (Keene, NH) in May 2004. He was elected a National Fellow of the Explorers Club in March 1998, a Switzer Environmental Fellow in May 2000, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences in 2002, and a Full Member of Sigmi Xi, a widely-respected scientific society, in 2005. Prior to his appointment to Pinellas County Government, he was the Director of Research and Conservation at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, heading its canopy ecology efforts from 2000 to 2004; and the Science Department Chairman at Millbrook School, teaching biology, ornithology, and tropical studies and holding the Garnjost Chair of Science and Mathematics at the prestigious boarding school from 1987 to 2000. Dr. Rinker's dissertation research focused on the effects of canopy herbivory on soil decomposition in the tropical forests of Puerto Rico, linking the green and brown food webs. His work was funded by the National Science Foundation, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation's 2000 Switzer Environmental Fellowship, the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, and several private grants. Dr. Rinker is an Associate of the Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (Keene, NH), a Research Associate for TREE Foundation and New College of Florida (both in Sarasota, FL), a council representative and a representative to the Natural Science Collections Alliance for the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and an adjunct faculty member at Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, FL). Dr. Rinker is a member of the research board of directors for the Amazon Conservatory for Tropical Studies (ACTS) in Peru and sits on the editorial boards for Selbyana and ActionBioscience, the latter an on-line journal. He has authored many scientific and popular publications including two technical volumes as co-editor and contributor, 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 various trips to the Galápagos Islands; into the High Andes of Ecuador and Peru; the Amazon Basin of Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru; the rainforests of Australia, Costa Rica, the Congo Basin of Cameroon, Cuba, French Guiana, and Puerto Rico; the deserts and reefs of the Middle East; and other places. He has participated twice on the French-sponsored international Radeau des Cimes mission with its colorful dirigible, treetops raft, and canopy sled. Dr. Rinker has received numerous science education awards including "Outstanding Science Teacher" (1991, Science Teachers Association of New York State), "Outstanding Biology Teacher" (1997, National Association of Biology Teachers), and the "Environmental Education Award" from the County of Sarasota, FL in 2004. He was nominated in 2009 for the “Eugene P. Odum Education Award” of the Ecological Society of America. He has been featured recently in numerous publications and shows including The High Frontier: Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy (Mark W. Moffett, Harvard University Press, 1993), Science News (December 1994), AMC Outdoors (May 1998), National Geographic World (September 1986 and March 1999), PBS’s “Live from the Rainforest” (April 1998), the Jason X Project (“Rainforests: A Wet and Wild Adventure,” Spring 1999, focus and consultant), Life in the Treetops and It’s a Jungle Up There (Margaret D. Lowman, Yale University Press, 1999 and 2006, respectively), The Sciences (March/April 2000), New York Times/National Geographic Television (Summer 2001); National Geographic News (Fall 2003); WEDU’s “Gulf Coast Journal” from Tampa, FL (Spring 2004); a science-adventure documentary on forest canopy ecology for JULES Unlimited, Holland (Spring 2004); and various shows for Pinellas County’s “Postcards from Home” series in 2006 and 2007.

Keywords: Forest Canopy Ecology, Herbivory, Soil Microarthropods, Gaia theory, Ecological Feedback Loops, Plant/Insect Interactions, Urban Ecology, Science Education

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