James F. Drake is a professor in the department of physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology@the University of Maryland, College Park, where he works on magnetic reconnection and other topics in plasma physics. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California@Los Angeles in 1975. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), a Humboldt Foundation senior scientist awardee and a distinguished lecturer of the APS Division of Plasma Physics.