Marshall Sherfield Fellow Pete earned his BS and MS degrees in the biological sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he was introduced to the study of parasites. Although the field has obvious applied aspects, his interests have been primarily in the ecology and evolution of helminths (parasitic worms). He was awarded a PhD in Zoology from the University of Connecticut-Storrs for his work on the evolution of tapeworms which represented the first incorporation of genetic data into our understanding of how this diverse (10,000+ species) group of obligate parasites evolved. In 1998 he became one of two inaugural Marshall Sherfield Fellows enabling him to expand his study of the evolution of parasitism at The Natural History Museum in London. Since that time, and in keeping with (if not exceeding) the wider aims of the Marshall Commission, Pete has become a British citizen, married a Londoner, is raising a dual-citizen daughter and was offered a permanent research post in the Department of Zoology at the Museum in 2005. He is currently resident in south London and can be contacted via http://www.nhm.ac.uk//research-curation/ staff-directory/zoology/cv-6456.html.