STRI director to retire next year

In June 2020, Matt Larsen, Ira Rubinoff Director, will mark six years as the leader of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. He has decided that he will retire at that time.

Matthew C. Larsen (Photo courtesy of USGS)

“It has been my honor and pleasure to serve the institution and to represent it in the Republic of Panama,” Larsen said. “I am proud of the STRI team and with their support and collaboration, we have made great strides during my tenure, in improving and streamlining administrative processes to reduce costs and improve budget planning and accountability; and improving our research facilities and our role of training the next generation of tropical scientists.”

The Tropical Research Institute is instrumental in training the next generation of tropical scientists. More than 1,000 students and scientific collaborators, from more than 50 countries around the world, come to STRI each year. Larsen has hired seven new scientists, about one quarter of the staff scientist team in Panama, who have brought increased capability and diversity to STRI’s scientific cadre. These talented women and men will help lead our science into the future, facing 21st-century challenges in the areas of marine and terrestrial ecology, paleontology and archaeology. Larsen
also oversaw the completion of a new state-of-the-art laboratory at STRI’s Gamboa campus at the edge of a national park, thus bringing a modern laboratory directly to the field.

Under Larsen’s leadership, STRI is looking toward the future, by taking the first steps to develop the island of Coibita, located in the tropical eastern Pacific, into a nature preserve and research site that will serve scientists for generations, much as Barro Colorado Island fostered the birth of STRI 100 years ago.

Matthew Larsen, left, director of the Smithsonian Tropical research Institute and Director Emeritus Ira Rubinoff pose in a STRI educational exhibit featuring (one hopes) a larger-than-life jaguar.

Related posts:

A tropical science legacy: Ira Rubinoff, Director Emeritus, retires from STRI A Tropical Science Legacy: Ira Rubinoff, Emeritus Director, retires from STRI Endowed directorship named in honor of Ira Rubinoff ¡Feliz cumpleaños BCI!