Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992), wasan American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of alltime, having written or edited about 500 books and over 9,000 letters and postcards.
Isaac Asimov is widely considered a master of the science-fiction genre and, along with Robert A. Heinlein andArthur C. Clarke, he was considered one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the GalacticEmpire series and the Robot series, both of which he later tied into the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered byRobert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He penned numerous short stories, among them "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers ofAmerica the best short science fiction story of all time, an accolade that many still find persuasive. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name PaulFrench.

The prolific Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much non-fiction. Most of his popularized science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back aspossible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies andpronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include his Guide to Science, the three volume set Understanding Physics, Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery, as well as numerous works on...