John F. Ross

John F. Ross is the former Executive Editor of American Heritage and Invention & Technology magazines and was a Senior Editor of Smithsonian magazine before that. On assignment, he has chased scorpions in Baja, dived 3,000 feet underwater in the Galapagos, dogsledded with the Polar Inuit in Greenland, lived with the Khanty reindeer herders in Siberia, and launched the most northern canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic. He has published more than 200 articles and spoken at the Explorers Club of New York, the Smithsonian Institution, NASA's Ames Research Center, and BMW's Herbert Quandt Foundation.

While doing research for WAR ON THE RUN, Ross walked and kayaked many parts of Roger's tracks, giving him valuable on-the-ground experience with which to bring Roger's experiences vividly to life. He is the author of The Polar Bear Strategy: Reflections on Risk in Modern Life (Perseus Books) and lives in Bethesda, Maryland.