Researchers

Rick is an invertebrate zoologist, marine biologist, conservation ecologist, Southwestern naturalist, and has deep interests in Mexican and Mesoamerican archaeology and anthropology. He is Executive Director Emeritus of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and a Research Scientist at the University of Arizona. He has authored over 200 publications and 20 books, including the largest-selling text on invertebrate zoology (Invertebrates 4th ed., Sinauer Associates/Oxford University Press; available in four languages) and the popular field guides Common Intertidal Invertebrates of the Gulf of California, A Seashore Guide to the Northern Gulf of California, and A Natural History the Santa Catalina Mountains, with an Introduction to the Madrean Sky Islands. Nonfiction books written by Rick have won numerous awards, including Southwest Book of the Year and the New England Book Show’s Best College Text.

Rick is also an essayist and editorialist and frequently publishes in a various magazines and newspapers, in the US and Mexico. He believes scientists have an obligation to educate and inform the public at the intersection of science and policy, especially at this critical time when public perceptions of science and scientists has fallen.

As Director of the ASDM Press, books that Rick developed, edited, and produced for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press have won over a dozen awards, including three IPPY’s, the AAAS Children’s Science “Highest Rating” award, the Arizona State Libraries One Book Award (one book that every Arizona child should read), Américas Award for Latin American Studies, Moonbeam Gold Medal for Spanish Language Children’s Books, and the Tabasco Regional Cookbook Award.

Rick is also the author of two award-winning novels: In the Land of the Feathered Serpent (www.featheredserpent.online) and The Time Travelers (https://sanfranciscobookreview.com/product/the-time-travelers/).

Rick has been the recipient of more than 100 research grants from the National Science Foundation, NOAA, Charles Lindberg Foundation, National Park Service, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and many other agencies and foundations. He has served on panels and boards for many foundations and agencies, including the National Science Board, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, NOAA, PEW Program in Conservation and the Environment, Public Broadcasting Service, IUCN Species Survival Commission, U.S. Department of the Interior, and others. He has served on more than a dozen non-profit boards and was co-founder of the Western Flyer Foundation (http://www.westernflyer.org) and the Southern Arizona Buffelgrass Coordination Center (SABCC). Although he has organized and conducted field expeditions throughout the world, in over 50 countries and on every continent, he has maintained his research programs in the Sonoran Desert and the Gulf of California for more than 40 years. He is an elected Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Linnean Society of London (FLS), and the California Academy of Sciences. He is also a National Geographic Explorer, the recipient of a U.S. Department of Defense Civilian Service Medal, and the Luminaria Award from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Contact Rick at rbrusca@desertmuseum.org.