Dr James R Webb is currently a full professor of physics at Florida International University (FIU). He received his bachelor's degree in physics at Ball State University, and his masters and PhD in astronomy at the University of Florida. His research area is the study of blazar variability on all timescales and, although primarily an optical astronomer, he has worked in the UV, x-ray and gammaray spectral domains as well. He is an award-winning educator, earning teaching awards in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2010, outreach and service awards in 2002 and 2009, and an 'Astronomical Achievements Award' from the Southern Cross Astronomical Society for his astronomy outreach programs. He was a finalist in the 'Worlds Ahead' faculty award in 2012, the most prestigious award for faculty at FIU. He has published over 65 peer-reviewed papers on blazars, organized two international conferences on blazars and served as the director of the SARA North telescope for 15 years. He is currently director of the Stocker Astroscience Center at FIU's MMC campus. He has taught extragalactic astrophysics and general relativity at the graduate level for over 25 years.