Rick Bonney

Expertise

Participatory Science • Public Engagement in Science • Informal Science Education • Editing

My career at the Lab has spanned five decades, starting as an undergraduate volunteer in 1975. Since 1983 I have served as director of publications, director of education, director of participatory science, and from 2005 through 2019, director of the public engagement in science program.

I formally retired from the Lab in 2019. Now emeritus at the Lab, I continue to work on a variety of projects, largely focused on developing and evaluating the impacts of participatory science programs for varied organizations including U.S. federal agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. I also continue to advise and evaluate numerous projects throughout the world which are developing exhibits, curricula, interactive websites, and participatory research efforts focused on science.

Highlights of my career include launching several of the Lab’s current participatory science projects, including its K-12 education and urban bird studies programs; co-founding the international Citizen Science Association; founding and editing the association’s journal, Citizen Science: Theory and Practice for its first four years of publication; and receiving more than 20 awards from the National Science Foundation to support the development of the Lab’s public engagement programs.

Education

M.P.S., Natural Resources Policy and Planning, Cornell University
B.S., Wildlife Science, Cornell University

Favorite Bird

My favorite bird is the Scarlet Tanager, partly because it is beautiful, and partly because it is the first bird that I identified on my own. The bird was also the inspiration for one of the Lab’s earliest participatory science programs, Project Tanager, which I launched in 1992.