Charles A. Cole

Robert Leo Smith was my master's degree adviser at West Virginia University (and the lone author for the first five editions). His was the first ecology text that I had that explained things simply and clearly and covered a huge range of ideas and topics. The man himself was incredibly knowledgeable, yet friendly, nice, and the quintessential absentminded professor. I guess his mind was on the massive amount of information necessary for this book.

I can think of no better introductory ecology textbook than this. May we all have the joy of meeting such people during our graduate careers.