A membership society whose goal is to advance and to diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and other broad biological principles so as to enhance the conceptual unification of the biological sciences.
Meet the AmNat Journal Office
Posted on
Since 1867, the Naturalist has been produced by actual human beings! While we take editorial standards and the high quality of the science we publish very seriously, we also aim to deliver a friendly, hands-on, supportive experience for both authors and reviewers. The result is what former Editor-in-Chief Dan Bolnick likes to call “artisanal, small-batch publishing”.
The journal has been published by the University of Chicago Press since 1968. (See more about how this came to be in this historical perspective.) As a result, we benefit from the Press’s expert copyediting team (who are responsible for upholding the world-class publishing standards of the Chicago Manual of Style and CSE Manual). We are a nonprofit publisher that is integrally part of the broader University of Chicago community.
The Journal Office team
The American Naturalist journal office is staffed by a full-time managing editor and dedicated University of Chicago editorial student assistants.
Owen at Asilomar in 2023Photo of bearded man with central California coastline in the background
Managing Editor Owen Cook has been working with AmNat since 2013, spending his first seven years with the journal as an editorial associate under the expert guidance of Trish Morse. A former educator, he lived in Toronto, Istanbul, and Niagara Falls before returning to his native Chicagoland in 2011. When not beautifying vector graphics or poring over LaTeX error messages, he enjoys Jane Austen, ancient history, Celtic languages, Palladian architecture, and finding the perfect drink pairing. He speaks passable French and wishes his Latin and Irish were more up to scratch. While he’s working on AmNat, there is a fair chance that he will be listening to heavy metal, classical, Celtic, or electro-mediæval music.
Sarah-Eden in front of a very green Chicago RiverPhoto of a woman in downtown Chicago amidst St Patrick's Day festivities
Editorial Student Assistant Sarah-Eden Amara is studying philosophy and economics at the University of Chicago. She is originally from Southern California. In her free time, she is interested in soccer, opera, mosaics, and the culinary arts. She has been very excited to join the journal and to have begun learning more about the ins and outs of academic publishing.
Editorial Student Assistant Claire Meyer is a second year at UChicago studying computer science, biology, and math. Though she currently lives in Philly, she spent most of her childhood just outside of San Francisco. Currently a writer for The Triple Helix, a student-run science magazine, she is excited to learn more about scientific publishing. She loves keeping up with the latest in AI and health sciences, through various articles and podcasts. In her free time, she enjoys running, reading, and exploring both new and familiar parts with friends.
Journal Office roll of honor
The section below includes members of journal office team since 2016—and beyond, in Trish’s case! For a list of editors going back to A. S. Packard in 1867, see the Past Officers page. Early editors often combined the roles of (content) editor and managing editor.
Editorial Student Assistant Eve Tanios worked on AmNat for over 3 years (2022–2025) while an undergraduate studying computer science and quantitative biology. Besides tracking down reviewers and handling daily correspondence with tact and consideration, she has contributed to improving many journal office operations, trained numerous colleagues, and even solved an occasional Press jigsaw puzzle. Eve enjoys reading, baking, playing cello, and buying way too many houseplants.
Arwen Bare was an editorial student assistant from 2024 to 2025. Majoring in Psychology and minoring in Neuroscience, Arwen was born and raised in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. An enthusiast for bodies of water, she is often to be found by the lake fairly often, journaling, seventeen tabs deep into any psych-related topic (especially psychopathology), or taking the 40-minute walking route instead of the 15-minute bus ride in order to have more time to listen to music on headphones.
While a Cognitive and Computer Science student at UChicago, Sarah Katz was an editorial student assistant from 2023 to 2024. Born and raised in sunny, mountain-coast Cape Town, South Africa, she is an outdoorist at heart. A self-admitted coffee addict and a raised puzzle extraordinaire, she considers herself to exist between existential crisis and prose-like poetry. She loves ice cream and books and record players, and pretty much anything topped with avocado.
Alena Zeng was an editorial student assistant from 2022 to 2023. A second-year student at UChicago studying economics and creative writing, she is originally from California and had been involved in publishing with a literary magazine before taking her talents to scientific publishing and the AmNat community! While on campus, she was involved in student organizations for environmental and data research and business, and in her free time, she enjoys playing the piano, singing in a choir, and taking long walks through local parks.
Along with Alex, Evan Williams was one of the inaugural editorial student assistants with AmNat from 2021 to 2022. A poet and essayist at the University of Chicago, he wrote on topics ranging from masculinity to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Like Evan, Alex Yu (余筝) was one of the inaugural editorial student assistants with AmNat from 2021 to 2022. A poet and translator, she completed her master’s degree at the University of Chicago. Her writing explores the possibility of cross-cultural conversation from a feminist angle.
