Richard L. Bitner is an anesthesiologist at the Penn State School of Medicine, Hershey Medical Center. He began studying horticulture at Longwood Gardens 15 years ago - completing their Series I and Series II programs - and has been a Plant Study Walk Instructor since 1993. He splits his time between teaching courses on conifers and deciduous flowering shrubs at Longwood Gardens and teaching the practice of anesthesiology to physician residents. Richard started photographing plants when he began studying at Longwood, and he now has well over 40,000 images, all labeled and filed! His talks are popular because of the quality - and quantity - of his photographs. He serves as a plant expert at the Delaware Center of Horticulture's annual rare plant auction, is a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Gold Medal Plant Award Committee, and served on the host committee for the 2006 national meeting of the Garden Writers Association. His alma maters include Dickinson College and the University of Pennsylvania. In his spare time, Richard enjoys gardening, reading, and traveling to visit public gardens.