Ruth Mostern, lead author of Volume 1 (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley) is a specialist in spatial and environmental history, focusing on imperial China and the world. An interdisciplinary scholar with research interests bridging the humanities, social sciences, information science, and environmental science, she has authored one book and edited another and has completed two major digital publications and eighteen articles. Her most recent book,?The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History?(Yale University Press), winner of the 2023?Joseph Levenson Prize?from the Association for Asian Studies, tracks the long history of the human relationship with water and soil, and the consequences, at times disastrous, of ecological transformations that resulted from human decisions.?She is currently the president of the World History Association (2025–26) and the former director of the nationally renowned World History Center at Pittsburgh University. She is also Principal Investigator of a?collaborative initiative, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities,?to create a?World Historical Gazetteer?that includes content and infrastructure for spatial-linked open data to permit large-scale and long-term historical analysis and visualization.