I am a woodturner from Ames, Iowa. - I have graduate degrees in Botany and Biology, and am on the faculty of Iowa State University, having taught courses in Biology, Evolution, Plant Systematics and Classification, Economic Botany, and Biogeography at ISU since 1990. I am originally from Cedar Grove, New Jersey, went to college in NE Pennsylvania (Wilkes Univ.), grad school at Rutgers University, and then spent 2.5 years as a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) before moving to Iowa. Although I am a transplanted "easterner", I have grown to appreciate the midwest, the people and the various opportunities of living "away from home". I am a member of the American Association of Woodturners, and for the past several years have been attending the national annual AAW Symposia, helping the association by being a demonstrator assistant, videographer, and demonstrator, and serve as one of the auctioneers for the annual Educational Opportunity Grant auction. In 2012, I was elected as one of the Board of Directors of the AAW and will serve a 3 year term from 2013-2016. I served on the bylaws re-write committee and now I chair the AAW Bylaws and Policy Committee as well as the Safety Committee. I also serve on the AAW symposium committee and am also a member of the AAW Woodturning Fundamentals Committee. I have been an officer of the Ames Woodworkers Club since 1995, and currently serve as President of the Ames Area Woodturners, a recently-formed chapter of the AAW. I sell my turned artwork in four galleries, and hope to expand into another two in the near future. Demonstrations: I am available to do demonstrations to interested woodturning clubs and other groups. Teaching is "my day job", and I enjoy explaining and demonstrating woodturning techniques so others can learn not just how to do woodturning methods, but more importantly, WHY the methods are used. I have interests in the 'science' of woodturning and about wood, its properties, and have presented the following demonstrations to woodturning clubs and at national AAW symposiums: Introduction to Woodturning The Complexity and Diversity of Wood Introduction to Wood Identification The Physics of Woodturning Basic Principles of Turned Vessel Design Setting-up a Safe and Efficient Woodturning Station Woodturners may want to check-out my Woodturning Links Web page which contains Internet links to over 500 woodturning-related web sites. Feel free to bookmark the following web site and use it at your convenience: Rob Wallace's Woodturning Links -----> <a href="http://rwallace.public.iastate.edu/WTlinks.html" target="_blank">http://rwallace.public.iastate.edu/WTlinks.html</A>