Joseph C. Watkins is Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics at the University of Arizona. Dr. Watkins has published works in the foundations of the theory of probability and has collaborated extensively with researchers in a variety of the life sciences, notably, genetics, biophysics, anthropology, bacteriology, entomology, and biochemistry. He was recognized in 2009 by the College of Science for his contributions in being named a Galileo Circle Fellow. Dr. Watkins work includes both new results in stochastic modeling and in both the theoretical and practical aspects of statistics. His research interests are broad, from understanding the mechanism of the Africanization of the honeybee to the dynamics of single molecule motors to the ancient structure of human populations in Africa. Dr. Watkins has been a leader at the University of Arizona in the interdisciplinary training at the biology/math interface both at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has been a co-investigator for an IGERT training grant and is a member of the steering committee for an NIH training grant housed in an Applied Mathematics Program. In addition, Dr. Watkins serves as the chair of the Undergraduate Biology Research Program’s Biomath Committee.