About the Authors

Gordon A. McFeters

Professor of Microbiology, Montana State University-Bozeman

Gordon McFeters received his PhD in microbiology from Oregon State University and has been active in teaching and research. He teaches courses in introductory microbiology for non-science majors, water microbiology, and microbial physiology. Research interests include the microbiology of water and wastewater, the physiological response of enteric bacteria to aquatic systems, biofilms, and microbial ecology. He has done extensive field studies in environments from the high alpine zone and Antarctica to that on recent NASA shuttle flights into space. He also spent one year at the Swiss Federal Institute for Water Resources and Water Pollution Control. Such work has resulted in more than 110 scientific journal papers, 17 book chapters, and a book on the microbiology of water.

Diane D. Edwards

PhD Candidate, History of Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Academic Advisor, Office of General Studies, Montana State University-Bozeman

Diane Edwards has M.S. degrees in microbiology, journalism, and history of science from various institutions. A registered medical technologist, she has worked as a research microbiologist in the pharmaceutical and food industries, a lecturer in the Microbiology Department at Montana State University, a newspaper and magazine science/medicine journalist, and a wheat farmer in northern Montana. She has written numerous articles on a wide variety of scientific topics, co-authored a recent book on the history of ophthalmology, and served as a principal editor for a college-level microbiology textbook. Currently, she is completing a doctoral thesis on federal governments and Native American health in the 19th and early-20th centuries.