Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science, nature, and human biology for almost three decades. Her books include The Bird Way; The Genius of Birds; Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream; Ah-Choo: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold; Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity; and Notes from the Shore. A contributor to Scientific American, National Geographic, the New York Times, and many other publications, Ackerman is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Author photo: Sofia Runarsdotter