Paul J. Karol, the author, is a linear academic descendent of Joseph Black, the discoverer of carbon dioxide. He is Professor Emeritus and has been on the chemistry faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for over forty years and received two awards for teaching during that period. His undergraduate degree in chemistry was from Johns Hopkins University and his postdoctoral research was done at Brookhaven National Laboratory. His doctorate degree in nuclear chemistry was acquired at Columbia University under the auspices of Dr. J. M. Miller. Prof. Karol has served as Chair of the Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology of the American Chemical Society, as Chair of the Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology and Symbols of the American Chemical Society, as Chair of the Committee on Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and as Chair of the Joint Working Party on the Disovery of New Elements of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. He served as Associate Dean of Science at Carnegie Mellon and Visiting Professor to the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Legnaro, Italy and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute in Tokai, Japan. He is the author of over 100 publications.