Barnas Monteith is a science enthusiast with a special devotion to the inquiry-based science & engineering education movement. Barnas was and still is one of the top award-winning science fair participants in the country.  His research on the biochemistry and microstructure of dinosaur eggs won first place in every science fair he joined, including regional state, national, and international fairs.  

 

As an adult Barnas has founded and led companies in software engineering and the manufacture of industrial diamonds for use in the semiconductor and green energy industries.  Barnas chairs the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair, where he works to bring the excitement of original research to middle and high school students across the state.  He helped the science fair start its Curious Minds initiative, which helps educate teachers in how to teach inquiry science in the classroom and how to get kids involved in science fairs.  He also serves on science education advisory councils to the governor of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Department of Education and a number of other policy advisory boards.   

 

Barnas has lived and worked in both Taiwan and mainland China, and he speaks passable Mandarin.  His other interests include gardening and fishing, and he is currently raising Chip-Chip and Chap-Chap, two birds he rescued when their parents abandoned them after their nest fell onto his front porch during a storm.  

 

Previous books by Barnas Monteith include two in the Galactic Academy of Science series, The Furious Case of the Fraudulent Fossil and The Harrowing Case of the Hackensack Hacker.