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Robert M. Pringle

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Robert M. Pringle
Pringle (left) and Corina Tarnita in 2015 at the National Science Teaching Association convention in Nashville, Tennessee
Born1979 (1979) (age 45)
Ann Arbor, Michigan
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship
Scientific career
FieldsEcology
InstitutionsPrinceton University

Robert Mitchell Pringle (born February 9, 1979) is an American biologist and conservationist.

He is professor and director of undergraduate studies in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University.[1][2]

Pringle's research combines field and laboratory methods to understand biological interactions and biodiversity loss in terrestrial ecosystems, chiefly African savannas.[3]

One major focus of Pringle's work has been understanding the ecological impacts of armed conflict and the dynamics of postwar ecosystem restoration in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Early life and education

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Pringle was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[11]

His father, cell biologist John Pringle, and mother, cancer biologist Beverly Mitchell, encouraged his love of nature.[11]

Pringle’s sister, Elizabeth, is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Nevada, Reno.[12]

Pringle graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, completed an M.Sc. degree at the University of Oxford in 2004, and received a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University in 2009.[13] He was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows before joining the Princeton faculty in 2012.[14][15]

Career

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Pringle's early research experimentally documented the keystone roles played by large herbivores, carnivores, and subterranean termites in regulating biodiversity and ecosystem function in savannas.[16][17]

In 2013, Pringle's lab was among the first to use DNA metabarcoding to understand dietary niche differentiation and its role in sustaining the coexistence of animal species.[18][19][20][21]

Pringle also worked with Princeton colleagues Corina Tarnita and Juan Bonachela to develop new theories about the formation of large, regular vegetation patterns, such as the Namib Desert fairy circles.[22][23]

Pringle's work in Gorongosa has focused on measuring the ecological and evolutionary impacts of losing large herbivores and carnivores, as well as the dynamics of community reassembly as these species have been restored.[24] [25][26][10]

This research was featured in the Emmy Award nominated nature documentary, Nature’s Fear Factor.[27]

Pringle serves on the board of the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, a nonprofit organization supporting conservation and biodiversity research in Costa Rica’s Area de Conservación Guanacaste.[28] With Simon Levin and Corina Tarnita, he is the editor of the Monographs in Population Biology published by Princeton University Press, a series of influential books in ecology and evolutionary biology.[29]

Recognition

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Pringle received the Early Career Investigator Award from the American Society of Naturalists in 2011 and was named an Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in 2015.[30][31] [32]

Students at Princeton have described Pringle as a passionate and creative teacher. [33]

The parasitoid wasp Lytopylus robpringlei was named after Pringle in 2011, in honor of his conservation work.[34] This species was later transferred into the genus Aerophilus.[35]

In 2024, Pringle was named a Guggenheim Fellow.[36]

Personal life

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Pringle is married to Corina Tarnita, a mathematician and biologist who is also a professor at Princeton. Pringle and Tarnita have collaborated on multiple research projects, and they have one daughter.[37][38]

References

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  1. ^ "Robert Pringle - Faculty - Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology". Princeton University. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  2. ^ "Rob Pringle - Princeton University". Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival & Conservation Summit. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  3. ^ Robert Pringle. "Princeton Environmental Research". Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  4. ^ Blanding, Michael (April 13, 2018). "Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: Ecological Cost of War". Princeton Alumni Weekly.
  5. ^ "How war affects wildlife". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  6. ^ "When humans wage war, animals suffer too: study". Nation. July 2, 2020.
  7. ^ "Think Like a Scientist: Gorongosa". PBS LearningMedia.
  8. ^ Angier, Natalie (July 23, 2018). "In Mozambique, a Living Laboratory for Nature's Renewal". New York Times.
  9. ^ Cepelewicz, Jordana (December 20, 2016). "Spark of Science: Rob Pringle". Nautilus.
  10. ^ a b Weiss, Sabrina (May 3, 2020). "The wild experiment to bring apex predators back from the brink". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  11. ^ a b Labrecque, Jeff (December 13, 2021). "With DNA toolkit, Rob Pringle is learning how to rebuild broken ecosystems". Princeton Alumni Weekly.
  12. ^ "Elizabeth Pringle - Faculty - Department of Biology". University of Nevada, Reno. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  13. ^ "Robert M. Pringle". Gorongosa. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  14. ^ "Current & Former Junior Fellows". Society of Fellows - Harvard University.
  15. ^ "Robert M. Pringle". American Scientist.
  16. ^ Fountain, Henry (January 9, 2007). "The Ungulate Effect on a Ecosystem". New York Times.
  17. ^ "Ecology: Mighty termite mounds". Nature. 465 (7298): 529. 2010. Bibcode:2010Natur.465S.529.. doi:10.1038/465529c. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 29896741.
  18. ^ Kelly, Morgan (October 26, 2015). "Understanding animal coexistence with a little dung and a lot of DNA". Princeton University. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  19. ^ "Niche Partitioning and Species Coexistence". HHMI BioInteractive. November 11, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  20. ^ Pringle, Robert (June 6, 2019). "Species coexistence in landscapes of fear". Ecology & Evolution Community. Nature Portfolio. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  21. ^ Kartzinel, Tyler R.; Chen, Patricia A.; Coverdale, Tyler C.; Erickson, David L.; Kress, W. John; Kuzmina, Maria L.; Rubenstein, Daniel I.; Wang, Wei; Pringle, Robert M. (June 30, 2015). "DNA metabarcoding illuminates dietary niche partitioning by African large herbivores". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (26): 8019–8024. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.8019K. doi:10.1073/pnas.1503283112. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4491742. PMID 26034267.
  22. ^ Page, Thomas. "Namibia's fairy circles: Has one of nature's great mysteries been solved?". CNN. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  23. ^ St. Fleur, Nicholas (January 19, 2017). "Fishing for Clues to Solve Namibia's Fairy Circle Mystery". New York Times.
  24. ^ Avolinsky, Anna (May 15, 2013). "Breaking Ground: Bringing back the lions and zebras". Princeton Alumni Weekly.
  25. ^ Vinter, Robyn (October 21, 2021). "Ivory poaching has led to evolution of tuskless elephants, study finds". The Guardian.
  26. ^ Pringle, Robert (May 4, 2020). "A rewilding success story in Gorongosa National Park". Nature Portfolio Ecology & Evolution Community. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  27. ^ NOVA. "Nature's Fear Factor - Season 47 - Episode 9". PBS. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  28. ^ "Rob Pringle - GDFCF". www.gdfcf.org. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  29. ^ "Monographs in Population Biology". Princeton University Press. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  30. ^ "Awards". American Society of Naturalists. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  31. ^ "ESA Fellows". Ecological Society of America.
  32. ^ "Pringle named ESA Early Career Fellow for contributions to ecology". Princeton University. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  33. ^ Levey, Julie (November 22, 2020). "Professor Pringle gets inventive with online teaching". The Daily Princetonian.
  34. ^ Sharkey, Michael; Stoelb, Stephanie; Tucker, Erika; Janzen, Daniel; Hallwachs, Winnie; Dapkey, Tanya; Smith, M. Alex (September 24, 2011). "Lytopylus Förster (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Agathidinae) species from Costa Rica, with an emphasis on specimens reared from caterpillars in Area de Conservación Guanacaste". ZooKeys (130): 379–419. doi:10.3897/zookeys.130.1569. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 3252762.
  35. ^ Sharkey, Michael J.; Chapman, Eric G.; CamposFirst3= Giulia Yurie Iza de (December 9, 2016). "Revision of Aerophilus Szépligeti (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Agathidinae) from eastern North America, with a key to Nearctic species north of Mexico". Contributions in Science. 524: 51–109. doi:10.5962/p.308968. ISSN 0459-8113.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  36. ^ Saxon, Jamie (April 11, 2024). "Seven Princeton faculty members receive 2024 Guggenheim Fellowships". Princeton University. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
  37. ^ Strogatz, Steven (February 18, 2020). "Corina Tarnita and the Deep Mathematics of Social Insects". Quanta Magazine.
  38. ^ "Ecosystems and Drought". High Meadows Environmental Institute. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
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