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C. Richard Tracy is professor of Biology and of Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has served in administrative positions as Director of the Biological Resources Research Center and Director of the Doctoral Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He received his B.A. and M.S. from California State University, Northridge in 1966 and 1968, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1972. From 1974 to 1995 Dr. Tracy was a member of the faculty at Colorado State University. He has also taught at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Washington, the University of Puerto Rico, and Pepperdine University, as well as at biological stations administered by the University of Nebraska, Colorado State University, and the University of Michigan. Dr. Tracy has served as major professor for 40 graduate students and 11 postdocs. Nineteen of his Ph.D. students and postdocs have become professors at colleges and universities all over the world, and seven are scientists in the U.S. Geological Service. Dr. Tracy has been honored as Best Graduate Advisor with three separate awards: the Vada Trimble Outstanding Mentor Award (awarded by UNR Graduate Student Association in 1999); the UNR Graduate Advisor of the Year (2008); and the Nevada System of Higher Education Most Outstanding Graduate Advisor in the university system (2008). He has a diverse research program including pure and applied projects in physiology, ecology, and conservation biology that has resulted in more than 170 publications. Several projects incorporate principles, data, and analyses into strategies for preserving sensitive biological resources and for conservation planning.

The Biological Resources Research Center, established through a federal congressional initiative, was a research center devoted to acquiring a thorough understanding of the biological resources of the State of Nevada and in adjoining ecosystems in neighboring states. The Center supported two research labs including geographical information systems (GIS) laboratories (in Reno and in Las Vegas) and the Laboratory for Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics. Literally hundreds of graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and undergraduate students became involved in projects sponsored by the BRRC. Under Tracy’s direction, the BRRC brought in approximately $38 million in more than 140 grants and contracts supporting diverse pure and applied research. The data, analyses, and syntheses acquired by Center scientists represent scholarly contributions to the ways by which solid science can become the basis for sound conservation planning. This knowledge also has provided the basis for management planning by state and federal agencies, and by local and regional governments.

Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology is a renowned graduate program with 33 faculty and 34 Ph.D. students. Paul Ehrlich has called the conservation biology program in EECB “the best in the world.” The program provides resources important to its graduate students including the Laboratory of Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics, and field stations in Nevada and California. Graduates from the program have become successful university faculty, agency biologists, and ecological consultants. In 1999, Dr. Tracy was honored as Best Graduate Director among the 70 graduate directors at UNR.

Dr. Tracy has been honored as a Guggenheim Fellow, as a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), as a Distinguished Scholar at Pepperdine University, and as a Fellow of the Association of Western Universities. Dr. Tracy was the invited “Honored Commencement Speaker” at California State University, Northridge (2003). He is the recipient of an American Society of Zoologists’ Service Award, a Desert Tortoise Council Conservation Award, and a Service Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition to serving on panels for granting agencies and editorial boards for prominent journals in ecology, Dr. Tracy has served in leadership roles in the Ecological Society of America and the American Society of Zoologists.

Dr. Tracy’s public service roles includes serving as Advisor on the original Desert Tortoise Recovery Team for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Chair of the Houston Toad Recovery Team, Advisor to the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, and Chair of the Science Assessment Committee for the Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan. He has served as the Chief Science Advisor for Clark County, Nevada, Science Advisor to the Fish and Wildlife Service on desert tortoise conservation, and he has served as Science Advisor for The Nature Conservancy and the Great Basin Bird Observatory in Nevada.