Vance Vredenburg is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at San Francisco State University, Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and Research Associate at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at University of California Berkeley. He grew up in Mexico, received his bachelor's degree from the University of California Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. from University of California Berkeley. His Ph.D. research showed it is possible to reverse the decline of a threatened frog in the wild (Vredenburg 2004). This conservation approach has been implemented in montane areas globally. His current research focuses on the impacts of an emerging infectious disease (chytridiomycosis) and climate change on amphibians and the role of the amphibian skin microbiome in health and disease.