James L. Sumich received his M.S. in Biological Oceanography at Oregon State University, joined the biology faculty at Grossmont College, and then returned to Oregon State for a Ph.D. For his Ph.D. thesis, he studied the interactions between newborn gray whale calves and their mothers and the way each budgets its energy expenditures during the period of calf nursing. He has taught marine mammal biology classes for graduates and undergraduates at San Diego State University, University of San Diego, and Oregon State University, where he continues to teach, as the requirements of retirement permit. His retirement activities include continued research and writing on gray whale behavior and energetics. He recently marked the publication of the second edition revision of a textbook on the evolutionary biology of marine mammals, coauthored with Dr. Annalisa Berta and Dr. Kit Kovacs. He lives in a home he has built with his wife, Caren, in the woods near Corvallis, Oregon.