Dr. James Loch grew up in western Pennsylvania and earned his Bachelor's degree in Geology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). His Master's was awarded by the University of Southern California. He completed his doctorate at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Loch's research focuses trilobites, an extinct class of marine arthropods. He has conducted field research in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada, describing newly discovered trilobite taxa, and seeking to use them to correlate among rocks in the central and western United States.