Paul E. Hertz was born and raised in New York City. He received a bachelor's degree in Biology at Stanford University in 1972, a master's degree in Biology at Harvard University in 1973, and a doctorate in Biology at Harvard University in 1977. While completing field research for the doctorate, he served on the Biology faculty of the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. After spending 2 years as an Isaac Walton Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, Hertz accepted a teaching position at Barnard College, where he has taught since 1979. He was named Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Biology in 2000, and he received The Barnard Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2007. In… addition to serving on numerous college committees, Professor Hertz chaired Barnard's Biology Department for 8 years. He is also the Program Director of the Hughes Science Pipeline Project at Barnard, an undergraduate curriculum and research program funded continuously by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1992. The Pipeline Project includes the Intercollegiate Partnership, a program for local community college students that facilitates their transfer to 4-year colleges and universities. He teaches one semester of the introductory sequence for Biology majors and preprofessional students, lecture and laboratory course in vertebrate zoology and ecology, and a year-long seminar that introduces first-year students to scientific research. Professor Hertz is an animal physiological ecologist with a specific research interest in the thermal biology of lizards. He has conducted fieldwork in the West Indies since the mid-1970s, most recently focusing on the lizards of Cuba. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, and he has published his research in such prestigious journals as "The American Naturalist, Ecology, Nature, Oecologia," and "Proceedings of the Royal Society."
For the past two decades, Cecie Starr has been known as one of the best-selling biology textbook authors. Her texts, appreciated for their clarity in both the written word and the visual representation of biological concepts, include multiple editions of BIOLOGY: THE UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF LIFE, BIOLOGY: CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS, and BIOLOGY TODAY AND TOMORROW. Her original dream was to become an architect. Instead of building houses, she now builds, with care and attention to detail, incredible texts based on this philosophy: "I invite students into a chapter through an intriguing story. Once inside, they get the great windows that biologists construct on the world of life. Biology is not… just another house. It is a conceptual mansion. I hope to do it justice."Beverly McMillan has been a science writer for more than 25 years and is coauthor of a college text in human biology, now in its eighth edition. She was worked extensively in educational and commercial publishing, including 8 years in editorial management positions in the college divisions of Random House and McGraw-Hill. In a multifaceted freelance career, Bev also has written or coauthored 10 trade books, as well as story panels for exhibitions at the Science Museum of Virginia and the San Francisco Exploratorium. She has worked as a radio producer and speechwriter for the University of California system and as science writer and media relations advisor for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.