Per Alström was born in 1961. He is currently employed by the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. He has a PhD in systematic zoology, and has written some 80 papers on birds, mainly on identification, taxonomy and systematics, and was co-author of A Field Guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe (1991) and Pipits and  Wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America: identification and systematics (2003) and chapters on larks (2004) and warblers (in press) in Handbook of the Birds of the World. He has travelled widely, and has spent more than 3 years in the field in Asia, where he has discovered  several new species of birds. He is a member of two IOC committees, a member of the advisory boards for Alula, Birding World and Limicola, Swedish representative of Oriental Bird Club, and a former member of the Swedish Rarities Committee.