Kathleen Park Talaro is a microbiologist, educator, author, and artist. She has been nurturing her love of microbiology since her youth growing up on an Idaho farm where she was first fascinated by tiny creatures she could just barely see swimming in a pond. This interest in the microbial world led to a biology major at Idaho State University, where she worked as a teaching assistant and scientific illustrator for one of her professors. This was the beginning of an avocation that she continues today-that of lending her artistic hand to interpretation of scientific concepts. She continued her education at Arizona State University, Occidental College, California Institute of Technology, and California State University. She has taught microbiology and major's biology courses at Pasadena City College for 30 years, during which time she developed new curricula and refined laboratory experiments. She has been an author of, and contributor to, several publications of the William C. Brown Company and McGraw-Hill Publishers since the early 1980s, first illustrating and writing for laboratory manuals and later developing this textbook. She has also served as a coauthor with Kelly Cowan on the first two editions of Microbiology: A Systems Approach. Kathy continues to make microbiology a major focus of her life and is passionate about conveying the significance and practical knowledge of the subject to students, colleagues, family, friends, and practically anyone who shows interest. In addition to her writing and illustration, she keeps current attending conferences and participating in the American Society for Microbiology and its undergraduate educational programs. She is gratified by the many supportive notes and letters she has received over the years from devotees of microbiology and users of her book. She lives in Altadena, California, with husband Dave Bedrosian, and son David. Whenever she can, she visits her family in Idaho. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, reading true crime books, music, crossword puzzles, and playing with her rescued kitties.