William B. Heard holds an M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Astronomy from Yale University. From 1973 to 1975, he taught as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy and in 1975 accepted a post as Scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory. Here, he developed theoretical and computational techniques for space systems and internal ocean waves. From 1978 to 2003, Dr. Heard worked as a Scientist for Exxon/Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering. During these years, he held a variety of adjunct teaching positions at Rutgers University, Stevens Institute of Technology and Fairleigh Dickinson University where he taught numerical methods, computational fluid dynamics and continuum mechanics. In 2003, Dr. Heard took retirement and now works as an independent writer.