Richard Primack

Richard B. Primack is an American biologist and botanist. He worked as a professor of biology at Boston University from 1978 until his retirement in 2024.^[1][2]

Richard B. Primack
Alma mater	Duke University (PhD) Harvard University (BA)
Scientific career
Fields	Botany, biology
Institutions	Boston University
Doctoral advisor	Janis Antonovics

Primack researches the effects of climate change on plants, bird migration, and the flight times of insects in Massachusetts. His latest book draws on records kept by Henry David Thoreau and other 19th-century naturalists in Concord.^[3] He served as president of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in 2003^[4] and as editor-in-chief of Biological Conservation from 2008 to 2016.^[5] He received his BA in biology from Harvard University in 1972 and his PhD in botany from Duke University in 1976.^[2]

Select books

• Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau's Woods (University of Chicago Press, 2014)^[6][7][8][9]
• Essentials of Conservation Biology (Sinauer Associates, 2014). ISBN 978-1-60535-289-3.
• An Introduction to Conservation Biology (Sinauer Associates, 2016).
• A Primer of Conservation Biology (Sinauer Associates, 2012).
• Tropical Rain Forests: An Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison (Wiley, 2011). ISBN 978-1-4443-9228-9
• Timber, Tourists, and Temples: Conservation and Development in the Maya Forest (Island Press, 1998).
• Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Southeast Asian Rainforests (Yale University Press, 1995).
• A Field Guide to Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America (Stephen Greene Press, 1984).