Ira Rubinoff (born 1938) is an American marine biologist and was a former director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

[1] The following year,[1] he started working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), and was the first marine biologist at the facility.

[1] As director of STRI, he focused heavily on fundraising,[1] creating a $17 million endowment for the facility to fund scholarships and grants.

[3] As a marine biologist, Rubinoff was influenced by Ernst Mayr's in the early 1960s regarding the evolution of fishes at the Isthmus of Panama.

[2] He also helped discover that yellow-bellied sea snakes can control their buoyancy, which allows them to dive as deep as 50 metres and float at certain depths.