WILLIAM C. RITZ (Bill), Chair of the Department of Science Education at California State University, Long Beach, has been involved with K-12 science teaching and teacher education for most of his professional life. Bill's career began as a junior high science teacher in the public schools of Western New York State. During a 4-year affiliation with the Eastern Regional Institute for Education (ERIE), service as an elementary science consultant took him into classrooms throughout New York and Pennsylvania while he also completed doctoral studies in science education at SUNY at Buffalo. In 1970, Bill joined the science education faculty of Syracuse University, also directing the University's Environmental Studies Institute. Since moving to California in 1977, he has taught both elementary and secondary science education courses at CSULB. Bill was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Science Teachers Association as its Teacher Education Director in 1983 and again as Regional Director for District XII, in 1996. He also served on the NSTA Board of Directors from 1988-89, during his term as President of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science (AETS). He chaired the very successful 1990 NSTA Area Convention in Long Beach. He was awarded the 1992-93 CSULB "Distinguished Faculty Scholarly and Creative Achievement" award and received the TRW Corporation "Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship" in 1994. More recently, Bill was honored by the Long Beach Industry Education Council with its 1999 "Distinguished Educator" Award. Also in 1999, the California Science Education Advisory Committee named him one its outstanding administrators for "Exemplary Service and Dedicated Leadership in Support of Systemic Reform in Science Education." Bill is author of more than 24 publications focusing on issues in K-12 science and science teacher education. Recent projects at CSULB under Bill's direction include a "Young Scholar's Ocean Science Institute," the "Project to Improve Methods Courses in Elementary Science," "Project MOST: Minority Opportunities in Science Teaching," and a project to prepare former engineers for careers in science and math teaching. "A Head Start on Science," which began with a grant from the US Department of Health & Human Services, developed a science component for Head Start teachers, parents, and youngsters, and continues at present as a national dissemination project supported by a grant from the American Honda Foundation. Bill is currently co-director of "The Long Beach Elementary Science/Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership" a project supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Project PI, Glenn Nagel; Project Co-Directors, Beth Ambos and William C. Ritz).