Louis Neal Irwin is a neurobiologist, astrobiologist, playwright, and author of over 90 research publications, including 5 books (2 in neuroscience, 2 in astrobiology, and 1 in evolution). He holds degrees from Texas Tech University (B.A. in chemistry, 1965) and the University of Kansas (Ph.D. in biochemistry and physiology, 1969). He has served on the staffs at the Shriver Center for Mental Retardation in MA, the Neurosciences Research Program of M.I.T., and on faculties at the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Columbia University, the Wayne State University School of Medicine, and as Chair of Biology at Simmons University in Boston and the University of Texas at El Paso. Trained as a physiologist, his research in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and astrobiology has spanned five decades. He belongs to the Society for Neuroscience, Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, and to both the American and International Societies of Neurochemistry. He is currently a Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso. His honors include award of an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship (1967-69), First Prize in science writing by Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (1978), selection as a Solar System Ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Lab at Caltech 2003-15), and appointment as the J. Edward and Helen M.C. Stern Professor of Neuroscience (1993-2008) at the University of Texas at El Paso.