Rolf W. Mathewes, BSc, PhD, is currently a full professor of biological sciences, and served as associate dean of Science at Simon Fraser University (SFU) between 2000 and 2011. He received a bachelor of science degree in biology from SFU in 1969 and a doctoral degree in botany from the University of British Columbia in 1973. After a year’s postdoctoral research in Cambridge, England, he returned to British Columbia and eventually took up a faculty position in biological sciences at SFU in 1975. He has conducted paleoenvironmental research in Scotland, Western Canada, and Europe, and has researched in Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research fellow on three occasions. In his academic career, he has been president of both the Canadian Association of Palynologists and the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, and associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Botany and Ecoscience. He has published more than 120 scientific articles and co-edited a book on Haida Gwaii in 2005. He received the 2011 SFU Alumni Association award for academic achievement. As a forensic botanist, he has, since 1986, investigated homicide cases with the RCMP, the Vancouver Police Department, and municipal police forces, as well as non-homicide cases, including Aboriginal land claims issues.