F.E. “Jack” Putz is a newly appointed research professor at UniSC in the Forest Research Institute. Before joining UniSC he was on the faculty at the University of Florida (UF) where he taught 3 undergraduate and graduate-level courses per year, for which he received numerous teaching awards, and advised more than 50 post-graduate students. Before UF he received his PhD from Cornell University and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia and a high-school biology teacher in Wisconsin. His research focuses on tropical forest conservation through improved management but he’s ventured into other fields including biomechanics, ethnobotany, ecophysiology, and fire ecology; based on his publications, he’s ranked among the world’s top five forestry researchers. In his spare time, he’s surfing and working on a South American prequel to his steamy jungle novel, Borneo Dammed, published under the nom de plume of Juan Camilo Moro.