David Brin is a scientist, inventor, public speaker, and author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards, and have been translated into more than twenty languages. A 1989 ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and the World Wide Web*. A 1998 movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was based on The Postman. His latest book is the story collection Insistence of Vision and his most recent novel, from Tor Books, is Existence.
Brin advises groups dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology. His non-fiction book — The Transparent Society: Will Technology Make Us Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association.
As a “scientist/futurist” David appears frequently on TV… as a cast member and/or pundit, especially on Discovery and History Channel shows such as The ArchiTECHS, The Universe and, most recently, Life After People (the top rated HC show ever). He is also much in-demand as a public speaker, keynoting events for IBM, Google, Procter & Gamble, SAP, Microsoft, and Qualcomm all the way to consultations for think tanks and over a dozen defense agencies including the CIA.
Brin’s papers in scientific journals cover an eclectic range of topics from astronautics, astronomy, and optics to alternative dispute resolution and the role of neoteny in human evolution. His Ph.D in Physics from UCSD (the University of California at San Diego – the lab of nobelist Hannes Alfven) established today’s accepted view of how comets were made and evolved. It followed a masters in optics and an undergraduate degree in astrophysics from Caltech. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Space Institute and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and spent three years on the technical staff at Hughes Aircraft Research Labs, where he helped develop charge coupled devices (CCDs).
David’s bestselling novel – Kiln People – has been called a book of ideas disguised as a fast-moving and fun noir detective story, set in a future when new technology enables people to physically be in more than two places at once. His science fictional Uplift Universe explores a future when humans genetically engineer higher animals like dolphins to become members of our civilization. A hardcover graphic novel “The Life Eaters” explored alternate outcomes to WWII. Foundation’s Triumph brings to a grand finale Isaac Asimov’s famed Foundation Universe. His popular online essays poke at convention and question comfortable assumptions.
As a speaker, David Brin shares unique insights — serious and humorous — about ways that changing technology may affect our future lives. (http://www.davidbrin.com/speaker.html) Brin lives in San Diego County with his wife, three children, and a hundred very demanding trees.
*(See two wikis about the string of successful predictions that were made in EARTH: http://www.necsi.org/community/wiki/index.php/ICCS06/David_Brin and http://earthbydavidbrin.pbwiki.com/)