Robert T. McMaster completed his undergraduate studies at Clark University and earned graduate degrees at Boston College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts. He taught biology at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Massachusetts, for twenty years until his retirement in 2014.

His research interests include botany, conservation biology, and the history of science.

He began his research on Edward Hitchcock in 2017 by transcribing hundreds of Hitchcock’s unpublished writings including sermons, letters, diaries, and lecture notes. Those transcriptions are available at https://www.edwardhitchcock.com/transcriptions.html. In 2020 he published articles on Hitchcock in Earth Sciences History and the Historical Journal of Massachusetts.

He recently published the first biography every written of Edward Hitchcock, All the Light Here Comes from Above: The Life and Legacy of Edward Hitchcock (Unquomonk Press, 2021). Additional information may be found at www.EdwardHitchcock.com.