Joseph Bast is president and CEO of The Heartland Institute, a 30-year-old national nonprofit research center located in Chicago, Illinois. Among the nation's state elected officials, The Heartland Institute is among the best-known and most highly regarded "think tanks."Bast is the author or editor of 21 books, including Rebuilding America's Schools (1990), Why We Spend Too Much on Health Care (1992) Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism (1994) Education & Capitalism (2003), Climate Change Reconsidered (first volume, 2009; second volume, 2011), and The Patriot's Toolbox (2010, rev. ed. 2011). His writing has appeared in Phi Delta Kappan, Economics of Education Review, Independent Review, Journal of Private Enterprise, The Cato Journal, Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, USA Today, and many of the country's largest-circulation newspapers. He has been profiled in feature articles appearing in Nature, The Nation, and E&E News.Bast is publisher of three monthly newspapers sent to every national and state elected and thousands of opinion leaders. Those publications are titled School Reform News, Environment & Climate News, and Budget & Tax News.Bast has been recognized many times for his contributions to public policy research and debate, including being named one of "The 88 to Watch in 1988" by the Chicago Tribune and being awarded the 1994 Roe Award from the State Policy Network, the 1996 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award, the 1998 Eagle Award from Eagle Forum, and the 2004 Champion of Liberty Award from the Libertarian National Committee. He was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by Gov. Paul E. Patton in 1996, elected a member of the Philadelphia Society in 2002, and elected to the board of directors of the American Conservative Union in 2007.Bast started The Heartland Institute while a senior at The University of Chicago. (He plans to return someday to take the two courses he needs to graduate.)