Dr. Myster received his Ph.D from Rutgers University working with STA Pickett and then went straight to the University of Puerto Rico (UPR).  There he worked in primary Montane forest and in several of its disturbed secondary forests (old-fields, pastures and landslides)while serving as a CO-PI for 12 years on their NSF LTER grants, done in collaboration with the US Forest Service.  While at UPR he quickly realized the importance of parallel studies in primary Cloud and Montane forests on the Neotropic Mainland, setting them up in the Ecuadorian Andes (and also in their old-fields, pastures and landslides). Studies in various primary Amazon flooded and non-flooded forests in both Ecuador and Peru (and also in their tree-fall gaps and selectively-logged areas) were also organized during that time. Taking positions in Oklahoma Universities then allowed him to focus and continue his studies on the Neotropic mainland which has cumulated in (now) seven books, all of whose royalties have supported that research.