Jan C. Rasmussen received a PhD in economic geology from the University of Arizona. Jan was the associate curator of the University of Arizona Mineral Museum, and later the curator of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix. She has over 40 years experience as an economic geologist working for the Arizona Geological Survey and several private companies and has taught geology at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. She has co-authored numerous books, open-file reports, and articles on Arizona geology.