Professor Merlino was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1951, and received a B.S. in Physics from St. Joseph’s University in 1973. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland in 1980. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Columbia University Plasma Physics Laboratory from 1980-1981. He joined the faculty at the University of Iowa as an Assistant Professor of Physics in 1981, and was promoted to Professor in 1992, and has remained there to present. He served as Associate Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 1994-95. He was elected to Fellowship of the American Physical Society in 2002, and membership in the International Union of Radio Science in 2004. He has served the APS Division of Plasma Physics as a Distinguished Lecturer in Plasma Physics in 2000-2001, as Chair of the APS Nicholson Award Selection Committee in 2006 and as Chair of the APS Maxwell Prize Selection Committee in 2008 and 2009. In 2010 he was named an Outstanding Referee of the APS, and has been an Associate Editor of Physics of Plasmas since 2004. In May of 2011 he received the “Stardust Award”, the Highest Award of the International Dusty Plasma Organization. His research activities are in experimental plasma physics, where he has concentrated on performing experiments investigating processes of relevance to space plasma physics, and on the physics of dusty plasmas. His research has been funded by the Cottrell Research Corporation, the Office of Naval Research, NASA, NSF and DOE. His teaching duties at the University of Iowa have been focused since 2004 on the development and presentation of a course for non-science majors, entitled “The Physics of Everyday Experience,” which has a yearly enrollment of over 600 students.