Robert L. Switzer is Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned a B. S. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1961, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 and joined the University of Illinois faculty in 1968. He is the author or co-author of 138 original scientific research articles, reviews and book chapters and the co-author of the textbook Experimental Biochemistry (W. H. Freeman). He was a Guggenheim Fellow and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

In recent years Robert has turned to a career in creative writing. His non-fiction memoir A Family Farm: Life on an Illinois Dairy Farm was published in 2012 by the Center for American Places, Columbia College, Chicago. He is currently working on a new novel and a collection of short stories. The Lady Professor is his first published novel.
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Robert and his wife Bonnie, an artist, live in Urbana, Illinois. They are the proud parents of a son and a daughter and four grandchildren.

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