Fred Spier, University of Amsterdam (retired), Netherlands

Fred Spier is one of the pioneers of big history worldwide, and among the first in Europe. He is a senior lecturer emeritus in big history at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He holds a M.Sc. in biochemistry and a M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and social history. His ten-year cultural-anthropological and social-historical research dealt with religion, politics and ecology in Peru during its entire know history and its effects in the Andean village of Zurite. As of 1993 until his retirement in 2018, Spier was the driving force of teaching and investigating big history at the University of Amsterdam, about which he wrote two pioneering books: 'The Structure of Big History: From the Big Bang Until Today' (1996) and 'Big History and the Future of Humanity' (2010, Second Edition: 2015) as well as numerous articles. The CRC Press is now publishing his latest book 'How the Biosphere Works: Fresh Views Discovered While Growing Peppers.'