Dr. John Rakovan is a professor of mineralogy and geochemistry at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He has broad research interests including crystal growth, structural and morphologic crystallography, mineral-water interface geochemistry, and mineral deposit formation. Much of his work falls into the broad area of environmental mineralogy. For example, he has recently been investigating the use of apatite, a calcium phosphate mineral, for remediation of sediments and soils that are contaminated by heavy metals and radioactive elements such as lead, arsenic, uranium, and thorium. He is also studying the potential use of apatite as a solid nuclear waste form. He is a fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) and has served the MSA and other mineralogical societies (e.g., the International Mineralogical Association) in many capacities including the recently formed subcommittee on apatite-group nomenclature.
Dr. Rakovan, an executive editor of Rocks & Minerals since 2001, writes a regular column titled Word to the Wise for the magazine.
Dr. Peter J. Modreski has been a geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Lakewood, Colorado, since 1979. He is presently part of the USGS Central Region, Office of Communications team responsible for public information and community outreach. His research interests have included mineralogy, gemstones, Rocky Mountain geology, ore deposits, and igneous petrology; his areas of past field and laboratory study include Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, and Poland. He is the USGS geologic resource specialist for abrasives, gemstones, quartz, beryllium, cesium, and rubidium. He has a BA (chemistry) from Rutgers College and an MS and PhD (geochemistry) from Penn State. He was a coauthor of Minerals of Colorado (1997) and is a research associate with the Earth Sciences Department, Denver Museum of Nature and Science. His related interests include hiking and camping, caves, volcanology, astronomy, photography, nature, and the environment.
Dr. Modreski, an executive editor of Rocks & Minerals since 1988, has written several articles on Colorado mineral localities for the magazine. 
Dr. Robert B. Cook is a professor emeritus in the Department of Geology and Geography at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, where he served for thirty-five years, twenty-two as department head, before retiring in 2007. He received his EM from Colorado School of mines and his MS and PhD from the University of Georgia. His professional specialties are exploration and environmental geology, and ore mineralogy and geochemisty. His work has included projects in Bolivia, Chile, Namibia, Australia, and China. He has authored more than one hundred technical publications related to regional geology, mineral exploration, and mineralogy and is the author of both the Alabama and Georgia state mineralogies. He is a fellow in the Society of Economic Geology and is a registered professional geologist in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
Dr. Cook, an executive editor of Rocks & Minerals from 1979 to 1982 and from 1989 to the present, has written the regular column titled Connoisseur’s Choice since 1992.
Editor-in-Chief Bio
Marie E. Huizing is editor-in-chief of Rocks & Minerals, a position she has held since 1978. Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, she received her bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in 1961, with a major in English and a minor in biology. She has lived in Cincinnati, Ohio since 1961.
In 1979, she received the Educational Foundation Award from the Cincinnati Mineral Society; in 1995, the Carnegie Mineralogical Award from the Hillman Foundation of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History; and in 2007, the Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Mineralogical Society of America.
