[1][2] Bruce was born in New York City in February 1777 and graduated from Columbia College in 1795 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

from the University of Edinburgh in 1800, and, in a tour of two years in France, Switzerland, and Italy, collected a mineralogical cabinet of great value.

In 1807, he was appointed professor of materia medica and mineralogy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, being the first to fill such a chair in the United States.

His chemical analysis "of native magnesia from New Jersey" made known to science the mineral now called after him, Brucite.

He also detected and correctly analyzed the zincite of Sussex County, New Jersey, and published a valuable paper "On the Ores of Titanium occurring within the United States."