A native Montanan, Dr. Rust has been an associate professor of history at MSU-Billings since 1999. He received a BA in history from the University of Minnesota, an MA in history from the University of Denver, and a PhD at the University of Leicester. His work in U.S. military history, particularly the nineteenth-century west, has been published in the journal Military History of the West. He has conducted and published both historical and archaeological research ranging from ancient Rome to the American West.