James A. Leise was born in Hollywood, CA, on February 11, 1943. He received the B.S, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1966, 1968, and 1972, respectively.From 1972 to 1975 he taught Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and at the University of Colorado. Between 1975 and 1977 he worked for the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES), Boulder, CO. Since 1977, he has been with the Wave Propagation Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, CO. His publications include work in oceanography, meteorology, lightning theory, digital signal processing, antenna theory, scattering theory, and algebraic topology. His primary interest is in combining physical equations with numerical methods to process and analyze scientific data.