John N. Rayner has served at The Ohio State University as chair of one of the top ranked departments of geography in the USA for twenty years and as director of atmospheric sciences for ten years. In those positions he has concentrated upon the development of curricula that guide students towards success in their respective fields. As a teacher and researcher for forty years he has published in the areas of temporal and spatial analysis, of atmospheric modeling, and of spatial cognition. His book, An Introduction to Spectral Analysis, is unique in geography.