Ed Kottick is professor emeritus of musicology at The University of Iowa. His fields of scholarly expertise are early keyboard instruments, performance practice, and musical acoustics, and he has published more than 50 articles and reviews on these subjects. His best-known book, published in 1987 and reissued in paperback in 1992, is The Harpsichord Owner's Guide: A Manual for Buyers and Owners. He is the author, with George Lucktenberg, of Early Keyboard Instruments in European Museums. His magnum opus, released in 2003, is A History of the Harpsichord. Ed is also a builder, with 50 harpsichords, two fortepianos, and more than a dozen clavichords under his belt. He has been associated with ZHI for many years and now designs their new instruments, builds prototypes, writes their construction manuals, and does their advanced technical support. In 2006 The Board of Governors of the American Musical Instrument Society conferred on Ed its prestigious Curt Sachs award for his "distinguished work as a scholar, author, lecturer, builder, and designer."