Michael A Rice

Education and early career

Rice was born in San Jose, California, to Richard Eugene Rice and Marilyn Joyce (Cardoza) Rice. He is a descendant of 19th Century Azorean settlers in California and a direct descendant of Edmund Rice. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1972 in Garden Grove, California. Rice attended Servite High School in Anaheim, California before attending the University of San Francisco, and graduating with a B.S. in Biology in 1977. While working in the laboratory of physiologist Grover C. Stephens at the University of California, Irvine, he earned both a master's degree in biology in 1981 and a Ph.D. in comparative physiology in 1987. Rice served in the U.S. Peace Corps in the Republic of the Philippines from 1981 to 1985 working with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. During that time, he worked to improve the sanitary quality of farmed oysters. In 1982, while working with José Maria DeGuzman of Value Trading Company, Inc., in Dagupan City, he helped establish the first commercially successful farm for serranid grouper fish in the Philippines.

Academic career

Rice has spent most of his career in academia, first appointed to the faculty of the University of Rhode Island (URI) in October 1987. His academic research interests are in the area of environmental physiology and ecology of bivalve molluscs, and he has further research interests in the field of aquaculture. His major contributions have been the demonstration that bivalve mollusks have the ability to absorb amino acids directly from seawater as a nutrition source, and that bivalves serve an important role in mediating the cycling of nitrogen and other nutrients within marine ecosystems. Additionally, he has studied the effects of shellfishing on the population ecology of bivalves. His research has led to refinements to the practice of managing shellfishery resources in coastal waters, estuaries and marine protected areas.

Rice has made contributions to the growth of the aquaculture industry in Rhode Island, and internationally, including the Philippines, Tanzania, the Republic of Georgia, and The Gambia. Working with Enrico Beridze of the Iberian Pontomarine Aquaculture Company, he introduced mussel farming to the Black Sea coast of Georgia. Rice has been the recipient of three Fulbright Scholarship awards: Republic of the Philippines 1996-97; Indonesia 1997; and Republic of the Philippines 2006. At the University of Rhode Island he served as Chairman of the Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science from 2000 to 2004, and Chairman of the URI Faculty Senate from 2005 to 2007.

Civic involvement and politics

Rice has served from 1999 to 2000 as the president of the Tavern Hall Club, a not-for-profit organization in Kingston, RI dedicated to the preservation of the historic (1738) Elisha Reynolds House as a community meeting place and social center. He has also served as the President of the University Club of URI from 1995 to 1996. He was elected in 2007 to the board of directors and in 2008 as treasurer of the Edmund Rice (1638) Association, a genealogical and family history association that meets annually in Sudbury, Massachusetts. In 2011, Rice was nominated by Bruce Sundlun and appointed by Lincoln Chafee as a Rhode Island Commodore.

Prior to election to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 2008, Rice served as an appointed member of a number of governmental commissions, including the Conservation Commission of South Kingstown from 1992 to 2008. He chaired that commission from 1998 to 2008. Also prior to election, he was appointed by the Speaker of the RI House of Representatives, to the Legislative Commission on Aquaculture Development (1995–1998), to the Legislative Commission to Develop and Coordinate a Collaborative Effort to Formulate a Restoration Plan for the North Cape Barge Oil Spill (1999), and as Legislative Commissioner proxy to meetings of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (1999–2000).

In 2008, upon the decision of incumbent Rep. John Patrick Shanley (D-South Kingstown) not to run for a fifth term in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, Rice ran and was challenged by Republican James K. Haldeman for the open seat. In the election held on November 4, 2008, Rice defeated Haldeman by 57.5% to 42.5%, carrying each of the district's five precincts.

During the 2009 legislative session, Rice served on the House Committee on Separation of Powers and Government Oversight. In the 2010 session, he served on the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, and the House committees on Separation of Powers, Government Oversight, and Constituent Services, as well as the Special House Commission to Study the Structure and Workings of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.

Rice was defeated for reelection by Spencer E. Dickinson in the September 14, 2010 Democratic Primary by a margin of 52.8-47.2%. Rice was targeted for defeat by the Rhode Island Labor Movement after voting to cut pension benefits for workers.

In 2011, Rice was appointed to the Rhode Island Democratic Party State Committee representing at-large Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district, serving until 2017. In 2013 he was appointed by Governor Chafee and received confirmation by the Rhode Island Senate to serve a three-year term on the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council, and reappointed for a second term by Governor Raimondo. He has been active with the American Association of University Professors.

Selected publications

Selected legislation as enacted