Dr. Mitsch is Eminent Scholar and Director of Everglades Wetland Research Park, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA.  He is also Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University where he was Distinguished Professor and Director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. He received his Ph.D. in systems ecology at the University of Florida. His research and graduate teaching have focused on wetland and aquatic ecology, biogeochemistry, wetland creation and restoration, ecological engineering, and ecosystem modelling. Dr. Mitsch has published over 300 papers on ecological matters and has edited or written 17 books. including the fourth edition of the widely used textbook Wetlands (Mitsch and Gosselink, 2007). Dr. Mitsch is past president of the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS), is a Certified Senior Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America, and a Certified Wetland Scientist with the SWS. He served on the NRC Panels on Wetland Characterization in 1993-1995 and Mitigating Wetland Loss in 2000-2001. He was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in 2004. He also received the Theodore M. Sperry Award in 2005 for a career in ecosystem restoration from the Society for Ecological Research (SER) and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) in 2007.