Rubens Onofre Nodari is a geneticist who teaches and carries out research in the interface of between agronomy and biology toward a more sustainable landscape management. He was awarded with a BS in agronomy by the University of Passo Fundo (1977), a master's degree in agronomy (crop sciences) by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1980), and a PhD in genetics by the University of California at Davis (1992). From August 2016 to February 2017, Rubens held a senior internship at the University of California at Berkeley under the supervision of Prof. Miguel Altieri.

In 1979, Rubens was selected for a position as assistant professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil, and later became a full professor. Currently, he teaches courses on plant breeding and biotechnology for agronomy students as well as the conservation of genetic resources, analysis of genetic diversity, and population genetics within the graduate program in plant genetic resources. For the past 20 years, he has been conducting studies and guiding undergraduate and graduate students in studying (i) domestication of Acca sellowiana, also known as feijoa or guava-serrana; (ii) genetics and plant breeding; (iii) phylogeny and phylogeography of indigenous plants; and (iv) biosafety and biohazards of GMOs. Since 2012, he has been part of the vine and wine research network formed by UFSC, Epagri, Julius Kühn Institut, and the Edmunch Mach Foundation to develop new varieties that combine disease resistance and wine quality. At UFSC he held the following positions: head of the department of crop science, from 1980 to 1983; member of the university council from 1985 to 1986; and coordinator of the graduate program in plant genetic resources from 2010 to 2015. He was also regional secretary (SC) of the Brazilian Society of Genetics (SBG) in the period 1998–2000, as well as of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC) in the period 2002–2004. Rubens has also been a manager of plant genetic resources of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment from 2003 to 2008. He was a member of the National Technical Biosafety Commission (CTNBio) from 2003 to 2007 and from 2015 to 2016, and a member of the Agrobiodiversity Study Group (GEA) at the Ministry of Agrarian Development from 2012 to 2016. From 2013 to 2016 he was professor and advisor at Agostinho Neto University, Angola, in the masters course in conservation and use of plant genetic resources.