Joan L. Slonczewski received their BA from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University, where she studied bacterial motility with Robert M. Macnab. Since completing postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, they have since taught undergraduate microbiology in the Department of Biology at Kenyon College, where they earned a Silver Medal in the National Professor of the Year program of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. They have published numerous research articles with undergraduate coauthors on bacterial pH regulation as well as five science fiction novels, including The Highest Frontier and A Door into Ocean, both of which earned the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. They conducted fieldwork on microbial ecosystems in Antarctica, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. They have served as At-Large Member representing Divisions on the Council Policy Committee of the American Society for Microbiology and as a member of the editorial board of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.