Dr. James B. Kaler is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research area, in which he has published over 100 papers, involves dying stars. He has held Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, has been awarded medals for his work from the University of Liege and the University of Mexico, has written for a variety of magazines, was a consultant for Time-Life Books on their Voyage Through the Universe series, and appears frequently on Illinois television and radio. His books include Stars and their Spectra (Cambridge University Press), Stars (Scientific American Library), Astronomy! (HarperCollins), The Ever-Changing Sky (Cambridge), Astronomy! A Brief Edition (Addison-Wesley), and Cosmic Clouds (Scientific American Library). He has also developed, with Sarah Kennedy, the scientific kit Elements of the Universe. He is a past president of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony.