Richard B. Primack

Faculty Associate
Faculty Research Fellow (2016-2019)
Professor of Biology, Boston University
primack@bu.edu
617-353-2454

Education

PhD, Duke University

Expertise

Conservation biology, plant ecology, and climate change biology.

Biography

Richard Primack is a Professor of Biology at Boston University with research interests in plant ecology, conservation biology, climate change biology, citizen science, and tropical rain forests. He has published over 200 scientific papers, and carried out extensive fieldwork in Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, Central America, United States, and other countries. He has served as the President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, and is an Honorary Fellow of that society. He has current appointments as the Distinguished Overseas Professor at the Northeast Forestry University in Harbin, China, and a Humboldt Research Awardee in Germany. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Biological Conservation and author of two widely used textbooks, Essentials of Conservation Biology and A Primer of Conservation Biology; for which 34 foreign language editions have been produced with local co-authors adding in examples from their own countries. He is also co-author of the book Tropical Rain Forests: An Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison.

For the past 14 years, Prof. Primack and his colleagues have been investigating the effects of a warming climate on the plants and birds of Massachusetts, with an emphasis on continuing the observations made 160 years ago by Henry David Thoreau in Concord. The work has also included experimental investigations of the environmental triggers of leaf out using dormant twigs, and the establishment of an international network of botanical gardens to monitor leaf out times in the spring and leaf senescence times in the autumn. Prof. Primack has been involved in educating the public about the effects of climate change through public talks and popular writing, including a recent book about his work: Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods. His work has often been featured in the popular, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and National Geographic magazine.

Prof. Primack has been selected as the Boston University Lecturer for 2016, and will present a lecture to the BU community and the public on October 26.