Jan Conn was born in Asbestos Quebec and escaped to Montreal at 17. She completed a B.Sc. (cum laude) at Concordia University, a M.Sc. at Simon Fraser University and a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. She did postdoctoral research in Caracas, Venezuela and in Gainesville Florida and is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Vermont. She focuses on mosquitoes that transmit malaria parasites to humans and conducts field research in Nigeria and Brazil. Currently working on a ms. of poems about the brilliant Amazonian botanical illustrator, naturalist and explorer, Margaret Mee.