David W. Ball is Professor of Chemistry at Cleveland State University. His research interests include computational chemistry of new high energy materials, matrix isolation spectroscopy, and various topics in chemical education. He has over 160 publications, equally split between research articles and educational articles, including five books currently in print. He has won recognition for the quality of his teaching, receiving several departmental and college teaching awards as well as the university’s Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in 2002. He has been a contributing editor to “Spectroscopy” magazine since 1994, where he writes “The Baseline” column on fundamental topics in spectroscopy. He is also active in professional service, serving on the Board of Trustees for the Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair and the Board of Governors of the Cleveland Technical Societies Council. He is also very active in the American Chemical Society, serving the Cleveland Section as chair twice (in 1998 and 2009) and Councilor from 2001 to the present.