Biosphere 2 Administration
Joaquin Ruiz
Director, Biosphere 2
Dean, College of Science and Executive Dean, Colleges of Letters, Arts and Science, The University of Arizona
Joaquin Ruiz received his B.S. in Geology and B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Miami in 1977. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Michigan in 1980 and 1983, respectively. From 1982 to 1983 he was Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. In 1983 he joined the University of Arizona Geosciences Department as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1989 and Professor in 1993. He served as head of the Department of Geosciences from 1995 to 2000. He was appointed Dean of the College of Science in 2000, a position he currently holds, and Executive Dean of the Colleges of Letters, Arts and Science in 2009. Dr. Ruiz is President of the Geological Society of America (2010-2011). He is also a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists, and a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society, the Geochemical Society, and the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Governing Board of the Instituto Nacional de Astronomia, Optica y Electronica in Mexico. He has served as Secretary of the Volcanology Section of the American Geophysical Union, Councillor of the Geological Society of America, and as a National Science Foundation Panel Member for the Instrumentation and Facilities Program and the Centers for Excellence in Science and Technology Program. He has served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Science, Geology, Revista, and Geofísica International of the Institute of Geology, UNAM. As a scientist with equal abilities in chemistry and in geology, Dr. Ruiz addresses many first-order problems in the Earth Sciences, such as the development of new isotope systems for studying ore deposits and the tectonic processes involved in the growth and evolution of Mexico. His research team addresses problems ranging from the origins of life to present-day climate change.
Pierre Meystre
Director, B2 Institute; Regents' Professor, Physics and Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona
Pierre Meystre obtained his Physics Diploma and PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in 1971 and 1974, respectively, and the Habilitation in Theoretical Physics from the University of Munich in 1983. He joined the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in 1977, following a postdoctoral position with M. O. Scully at The University of Arizona. In 1986, he returned to The University of Arizona where he is currently a Regents Professor of Optical Sciences and Physics, holds the Chair of Quantum Optics and is Director of the B2 Institute. Dr. Meystre’s research includes theoretical quantum optics, atomic physics, ultracold science, and quantum optomechanics. He has published over 300 refereed papers and is the author of the text “Elements of Quantum Optics”, together with Murray Sargent III, and of the monograph “Atom Optics.” He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, of the American Physical Society, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a recipient of the Humboldt Foundation Research Prize for Senior US Scientists, of the R.W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America, and was a Simons Foundation Lecturer at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Dr. Meystre has served on numerous national and international committees, currently including the Advisory Council of the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms and the External Advisory Board of the Center of Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was a member of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Research Council and chaired its Standing Committee on Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. He also chaired the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society, where he currently serves as General Councilor, and is a Council member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Peter Troch
Science Director, Biosphere 2 The University of Arizona
Dr. Peter A. Troch is since November 2005 professor of surface water hydrology at the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources of The University of Arizona. Prior to coming to Tucson, he was Chair of the Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management group of Wageningen University, the Netherlands. From 1996 to 1999 he was associate-professor at the Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management (LHWM) of the University of Gent. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Hydrology in 1993 at the same university. From January until August 1992 he was scientific researcher at the Water Resources Program of Prince¬ton University. He was involved in several international airborne and spaceborne remote sensing experiments in hydro¬logy. He organized international workshops on Catchment scale hydrological modeling and data assimilation (CAHMDA) in September 2001 (Wageningen) and October 2004 (Princeton). His current research involves seasonal, decadal and climate predictions of water availability in semi-arid river basins, as well as developing research infrastructure to investigate Critical Zone processes across climate gradients. He is member of the editorial board of Hydrological Processes, editor of special issues in Advances in Water Resources and Journal of Hydrometeorology, and was associate editor of Water Resources Research for 7 years. He has publis¬hed over 100 papers in refereed interna¬tional jour¬nals dealing with (flash) flood forecas¬ting, catchment classification and similarity, land slide and debris flow modeling, remote sensing applica¬tions in hydrology and data assimilation, climate variability and climate change impacts on water availability, and the role of vegetation on hydrologic partitioning at catchment scales. He is the recipient of the 2011 John Dalton Medal, awarded by the European Geophysical Union for distinguished research in hydrology evaluated as an earth science.
Kevin Bonine
Director, Education & Outreach, Biosphere 2
Joint Faculty in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, The University of Arizona
Kevin Bonine grew up in Tucson, graduating from TUSD’s University High School. He then attended the University of Arizona as a 1990 Flinn Scholar earning undergraduate degrees in both Economics (BA) and in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (BS with Honors). Kevin’s graduate degrees, both MS and PhD, are from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he focused on evolutionary physiology using lizards as a model system. His present research on reptiles and amphibians includes Gila monsters and canyon treefrogs, with emphasis on natural history, ecology, population genetics, and conservation. Kevin teaches many well-regarded UA courses, including introductory biology, herpetology, conservation biology, and vertebrate physiology. One of his newer courses is a collaboration with ASDM and Biosphere 2, titled Sonoran Desert Discovery, wherein UA students teach desert ecology to school children and the public. During the summer presession, Kevin teaches a popular three-week field course that explores the ecology and natural history of our region - from atop the Santa Catalina Mountains, through the Sonoran Desert, ending at the Desert Sea in the Northern Gulf of California in Mexico. In 2012 Kevin was recognized with the UA College of Science’s Distinguished Early-Career Teaching Award. Kevin is also Director of Outreach Initiatives in the College of Science at the University of Arizona and serves on the boards of directors of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Friends of Saguaro National Park, and the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO) in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora.