Dr. Raymond D. Stapleton, Jr. received his Ph.D. from The Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (USA). He subsequently was the recipient of an Alexander Hollaender Fellowship for post-doctoral studies in the Environmental Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He has spent the last 8 years actively engaged in research in the areas of Microbial Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, with 14 publications and one patent to his credit. Currently, Dr. Stapleton is employed as a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry with Merck & Company, Inc. at Elkton, Virginia, USA.