Although no longer an active member of the author team, Eugene (Gene) Nester wrote the original version of the present text with Evans Roberts and Nancy Pearsall more than 30 years ago. That text, Microbiology: Molecules, Microbes and Man, pioneered the organ system approach to the study of infectious disease, and was developed specifically for allied health sciences. Gene did his undergraduate work at Cornell and received his Ph.D. in microbiology from Case Western University. He then did postdoctoral work in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University with Joshua Lederberg. Following that, he joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington, where he remains active as an emeritus member. His laboratory demonstrated that Agrobacterium transfers DNA into plant cellsthe basis for the disease crown galla system of gene transfer that has become a cornerstone of plant biotechnology. In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Australia Prize and the Cetus Prize in Biotechnology, and was elected to fellowship in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the National Academy of Sciences in India.