Trent Preszler is professor of practice in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. His second book, Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America, was Longlisted for the 2026 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. After growing up on a South Dakota cattle ranch, his first job out of college was a White House internship for President Bill Clinton. Preszler received a BS from Iowa State University and an MS and PhD from Cornell University. A former winemaker and wooden boatbuilder, his life was profiled in a documentary that won a 2017 New York Emmy Award.