Connie Mutel is the retired IIHR historian and senior science writer. She was educated in biology and music at Oberlin College, and received an MS degree in plant ecology at the University of Colorado. Mutel then used that training to write a widely used book on the natural history of Colorado, initiating a career in scientific writing and interpretation. She came to the University of Iowa in 1975 and to IIHR in 1990 to assist then-Director Jack Kennedy with a biography of noted hydrologist Hans A. Einstein (son of Albert Einstein). In 2014, Mutel and co-author Robert Ettema completed Hans Albert Einstein: His Life as a Pioneering Engineer (ASCE Press). She has completed 15 books and many articles on a variety of science-based subjects, including a history of IIHR (Flowing Through Time). In 2000, Mutel established the IIHR Archives. Her book, A Sugar Creek Chronicle Observing Climate Change from a Midwestern Woodland, reflects the increasingly complex interaction between Iowa’s altered natural environment, the state’s hydrology, and the consequences of climate change. She also lectures extensively on these subjects. Mutel and her husband (a retired UI astronomy professor) live on 18 acres of oak-hickory woodland near Iowa City that they are working to restore to biodiversity and health. Mutel remains active in groups and volunteer efforts that work to educate Iowans about the interactions of nature and human activity, and the multiple benefits of restoring Iowa’s native ecosystems.