Joaquin Ruiz

Before being appointed Vice President of Global Environmental Futures in 2019, Joaquin Ruiz served as Vice President for Innovation, Dean of the College of Science and the Thomas R. Brown Chair and Director of Biosphere 2 at the University of Arizona. Ruiz is past President of the Geological Society of America (2010-2011), a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists, a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society, the Geochemical Society, and the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Governing Board of the Instituto Nacional de Astronomia, Optica y Electronica in Mexico. He has served as Secretary of the Volcanology Section of the American Geophysical Union, Councillor of the Geological Society of America, and as a National Science Foundation Panel Member for the Instrumentation and Facilities Program and the Centers for Excellence in Science and Technology Program. He has served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Science, Geology, ReVista, and Geofísica International of the Institute of Geology, UNAM. As a scientist with equal abilities in chemistry and in geology, Ruiz addresses many first-order problems in Earth Sciences, such as the development of new isotope systems for studying ore deposits and the tectonic processes involved in the growth and evolution of Mexico. His research team addresses problems ranging from the origins of life to present-day climate change.

Ruiz received his B.S. in Geology and B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Miami in 1977. He received his M.S. (1980) and Ph.D. (1983) in Geology from the University of Michigan.