I did my undergraduate work at the University of Illinois. Initially, I had planned to study nuclear physics, but when I discovered in an introductory psychology course that psychology was really a science, I decided that was what I wanted to do. Before formally changing my major, I talked with several professors in their laboratories, and when I saw what physiological psychologists do, I knew that I had found my niche. I stayed on at Illinois and received my Ph.D., working with Garth Thomas. Then, after a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Iowa, I came to the University of Massachusetts, and I've been there ever since.

I wrote my first textbook, Physiology of Behavior, while on sabbatical leave at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia. That established a family tradition of spending time in beautiful and interesting places, and we subsequently lived in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, in the heart of Paris, and in an eighteenth-century stone farmhouse deep in the Ardeche region of France. I was the first Allyn and Bacon author to submit a book manuscript on a computer disc. Since that time, technology has changed enormously. Now, my publisher requires that manuscripts be submitted that way. I assembled my first computer from a kit, but now my wife and I each have portable notebook computers that are ideal for writing while away from home.

A few years ago, I began collaborating with Jay Alexander, an artist who also works as a lab technician here at UMass. Jay and I now prepare all the artwork for my books. As I learned more about computer graphics, I began work on animations, and I prepared a computerized version of the study guide that my wife and I wrote to accompany Psychology: The Science of Behavior. My favorite hobbies are computers and traveling to interesting places- but I already said that, didn't I? I enjoy water skiing and cross-country skiing (which I can do out my back door), and recently my daughter has introduced me to the pleasure (and pain) of downhill skiing. She has also introduced me to the pleasures of doting on a grandson, born last May.

Bill Buskist received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Brigham Young University in 1981. As a graduate student, he taught courses in introductory psychology, research methods, learning, motivation, and sociobiology to undergraduates at the BYU main campus and to military personnel at Dugway Proving Grounds in western Utah. His first full-time teaching position was at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado where he taught courses in introductory psychology, research methods, abnormal psychology, memory and cognition, personality, and learning. Bill is currently professor of psychology at Auburn University, where he has taught introductory psychology for nearly every term over the past 14 years. He also teaches courses in learning, preparing for graduate study in psychology, and the teaching of psychology.

Bill's most recent research has focused on teaching and teaching methods. In particular, he has been investigating the variables central to the development of student-teacher rapport and how they influence both student interest in course content and student learning. From this work, Bill intends to develop specific exercises that will enhance student-teacher rapport and student learning. Bill has also been investigating student assessment of specific personal qualities of teachers that contribute to high quality teaching.

Outside of work, Bill spends most of his time with his family. He and his wife, Connie, an elementary school teacher, enjoy traveling and visiting national parks with their five children: Tara, 19; Colin, 17; Caden 15; and Kyle and Cale, 11. On weekends, most members of the Buskist family can usually be found white water kayaking on nearby rivers and creeks. Bill also enjoys training for and competing in triathlons.