Marge Lial was always interested in math; it was her favorite subject in the first grade! Marge's intense desire to educate both her students and herself has inspired the writing of numerous best-selling textbooks. Marge, who received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from California State University at Sacramento, is now affiliated with American River College.

Marge is an avid reader and traveler. Her travel experiences often find their way into her books as applications, exercise sets, and feature sets. She is particularly interested in archeology. Trips to various digs and ruin sites have produced some fascinating problems for her textbooks involving such topics as the building of Mayan pyramids and the acoustics of ancient ball courts in the Yucatan.

Thomas W. Hungerford received his bachelor s degree from Holy Cross and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He taught for seventeen years at the University of Washington (Seattle) before coming to Cleveland State University, where is he is professor of mathematics. He has written a number of research articles in algebra and several in mathematics education. Dr. Hungerford is the author or co-author of more than a dozen mathematics textbooks, ranging from high school to graduate level, several of which are published by Addison-Wesley. He is active in promoting the use of technology in mathematics instruction and was one of the founders of the Cleveland Collaborative for Mathematics Education (C2ME), an ongoing project involving local universities, businesses, and mathematics teachers. Dr. Hungerford is also a referee and reviewer for various mathematical journals and has frequently served on National Science Foundation panels for selecting grant recipients.