Paul E. Minnis is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, now living in Tucson, Arizona, where he is a visiting scholar in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He conducts research on the prehispanic ethnobotany and archaeology of the northwest Mexico and the U.S. Southwest. He has published extensively on ethnobotany. He is the author or editor of fifteen books and numerous articles. He has received the E. K. Janaki Amal Medal, the Distinguished Ethnobiologist Award, and the Byron Cummings Award, and he was a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer.