Rick Brusca is Executive Program Director at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where he oversees all research, conservation and education programs, as well as the ASDM Press, all living and non-living collections, and public exhibits. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona. Dr. Brusca is the author of 150 research publications and 12 books, including the largest-selling text on invertebrate zoology (Invertebrates, Sinauer Associates; available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian) and the popular field guides Common Intertidal Invertebrates of the Gulf of California (UofA Press) and A Seashore Guide to the Northern Gulf of California (ASDM Press). He has been the recipient of more than 80 research grants from the National Science Foundation, NOAA, National Geographic Society, National Park Service, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Charles Lindberg Fund, and other agencies and foundations. His areas of research include natural history and conservation in the Sonoran Desert and Sea of Cortez, invertebrate zoology, freshwater and marine ecology, and arthropod evolution. His PhD is from the University of Arizona (1975) He has served on panels and boards for many foundations and agencies, including the National Science Board, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, NOAA, PEW Program in Conservation and the Environment, Discover Life in America, Public Broadcasting Service, IUCN Species Survival Commission, U.S. Department of the Interior, and others. Rick has organized and conducted field expeditions throughout the world, on every continent, but has maintained his research programs in the Sonoran Desert and the Sea of Cortez for more than 30 years. He is a Fellow in both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Linnean Society of London.