Gerald W. Esch is Charles M. Allen Professor of Biology at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. He is editor of the Journal of Parasitology, the author of Parasites, People and Places: Essays on Field Parasitology (2004) and co-author of the textbook Parasitism (2001). He is a recipient of the Louis T. Benezet Distinguished Alumnus Award from his undergraduate alma mater, Colorado College, in 1992, and of the Clark P. Read Mentor Award from the American Society of Parasitologists in 1999.