Mark Torchin received his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and then a postdoctoral associate at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. He has been a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute since 2004. Broadly speaking, Torchin’s research evaluates how biotic interactions affect the distribution and abundance of marine species. He is particularly interested in how parasites affect the demographics of their hosts and how community structure is altered by infectious agents. Although parasites are often common in marine and coastal systems, their roles are poorly understood. Much of Mark’s research focuses on biological invasions. Introduced species provide a way to test predictions about the ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions as well as evaluate the effect of parasites in natural communities. Understanding how parasites affect the demographic success of introduced species and exploring the impact of introduced parasites on native communities will help manage biological invasions.