After graduating from Penn with a doctorate in the history of science, Simon Baatz taught American Studies at universities in Britain, returning to the United States in 2000 to take up a research position in the history of medicine at the National Institutes of Health and, subsequently, a three-year appointment as a visiting associate professor of history at George Mason University. He has recently completed a book on one of the most celebrated criminal trials in American history – For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Chicago (HarperCollins, August 2008).