Ellis Rubinstein is an innovator and change agent. Leading the 197-year-old New York Academy of Sciences since November 2002, Rubinstein increased membership to 22,000 scientists in 100 countries and established an extraordinary network of Nobel Laureates, leading academicians, CEOs and heads of corporate research, and government and UN leaders. This Academy's expert network has served the President of Russia, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Mayors of Mexico City and Barcelona, leaders of UN agencies, and ministers the world over. And it has enabled Rubinstein to develop groundbreaking international public-private partnerships in obesity and diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and science education. In formation is an unprecedented social network enabling a devoted cadre of the world’s most promising young scientists and engineers to inspire and mentor a global network of gifted as well as under-served children in science, technology, engineering and math.
Over 3 decades prior to the Academy, Rubinstein worked as a journalist and editor. His efforts garnered 3 National Magazine Awards, the Pulitzer Prizes of the American periodicals industry. As a Senior Editor at Newsweek, he produced the landmark cover story on the origins of modern humans, the first public airing of this research and one of the magazine’s highest-selling issues on the newsstand. As Editor for a decade of the world’s largest circulation scientific journal, Science, he created the largest global network of science journalists, pioneered in web publishing, and organized perhaps the earliest national site license with the government of China. In fact, he was the first western journalist to interview Chinese President Jiang Zemin and later became the first science journalist to interview President Bill Clinton.