Putting the science in fiction - Dan Koboldt, Chuck Wendig 2018

About the experts

The forty experts who contributed to this book represent a wide array of scientific, technological, and medical expertise. They include scientists, engineers, physicians, laboratory managers, and nurses who’ve collectively endured more than one hundred years of graduate study in their chosen fields. Many are aspiring or established science fiction and fantasy (SF/F) authors. Although they have different backgrounds and interests, they all have one thing in common: a love of SF. Their articles reference many popular books and movies that illustrate how (or how not) to put the science in fiction, with the goal of helping authors create realistic, compelling stories.

DAN ALLEN, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: PHYSICS

Dan Allen is a physicist and system architect for a smartphone sensor manufacturer. He has designed lasers for the government that see through envelopes and (eek!) clothing, lit a three-story electron accelerator on fire, and created nanoparticles in a radioactive hot lab.

KATHLEEN S. ALLEN, R.N., M.S.W., D.N.P., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: PSYCHIATRY

Kathleen S. Allen is a psychiatric registered nurse who specializes in depression. She has experience working as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, social worker, and educator.

TOM BENEDICT, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ASTRONOMY

Tom Benedict has a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and has spent the last fifteen years working as an instrument specialist at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii.

MEGAN CARTWRIGHT CHAUDHURI, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: TOXICOLOGY

Megan Cartwright Chaudhuri has a Ph.D. in toxicology and works as a freelance medical writer and editor. Her science nonfiction has appeared in Slate and Visionlearning.

REBECCA ENZOR, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Rebecca Enzor is a fantasy author with a B.S. in biology and chemistry. She has spent the last eleven years working as a nuclear chemist at an environmental testing laboratory.

LEE A. EVERETT, D.V.M., M.S., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

Lee A. Everett is an SF/F writer who, in her other life, has advanced professional training within a niche intersection of biomedical research and medicine.

LYNN FORREST, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE

Lynn Forrest is a lifelong weather geek and writing nerd. As an assistant professor, she teaches classes on and does research in atmospheric science.

ABBY GOLDSMITH, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT

Abby Goldsmith is a video game industry veteran, with credits on more than twenty games for Nintendo DS and Wii, Sony PlayStation 2, and mobile platforms. She earned a B.F.A. in Film and Animation from the California Institute of the Arts.

JIM GOTAAS, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: PHYSICS

Jim Gotaas passed through the gates of a Ph.D. in physics to a career in research and teaching physics, with occasional stops along the way to enjoy astrophysics and space travel.

MARIA GRACE, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Maria Grace has her Ph.D. in educational psychology and is a sixteen-year veteran of the university classroom, where she taught courses in human growth and development, learning, test development, and counseling.

MIKE HAYS, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: MICROBIOLOGY

Mike Hays lives in the heart of Kansas and has worked as a microbiologist for more than twenty-five years. He also coaches high school sports and writes middle-grade fiction. In his microbial research, he uses the tools of molecular biology to study the interactions between pathogens and their hosts.

RACHEL HEAPS-PAGE, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: SPECIAL EDUCATION

Rachel Heaps-Page has a B.Ed. Honors degree and experience educating children with severe learning disabilities and/or behavior problems. She has taught children with behavioral, emotional, and social disabilities in both mainstream classrooms and one-to-one, in primary and secondary schools based in England.

WILLIAM HUGGINS, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

William Huggins is an environmentalist in the American southwest. He writes, works, and explores the desert with his wife, daughter, and three rescue dogs. His short fiction and critical essays have appeared in various media, including Texas Books in Review, Third Flatiron Anthologies, the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, and Studies in American Indian Literatures.

GARETH D. JONES, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Gareth D. Jones has been managing hazardous waste for seventeen years, much of that time while working at pharmaceutical research and development establishments. He has a degree in environmental science and likes to entertain his family on days off by pointing out different wheelie bin sizes.

GWEN C. KATZ, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: CHEMISTRY

Gwen C. Katz has a B.A. in chemistry (it’s complicated). She did conservation research in a museum, helping museums develop better ways to preserve art and prevent fading and damage, before quitting to become a full-time writer.

BENJAMIN C. KINNEY, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: NEUROSCIENCE

Benjamin C. Kinney is an SF/F author with a Ph.D. in neuroscience. He leads the Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Laboratory at a major Midwestern university, and somehow also finds time to serve as the assistant editor of the Hugo Award-nominated magazine-style podcast Escape Pod.

DAN KOBOLDT, M.S., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: GENETICS

Dan Koboldt is a principal investigator at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University. In his fifteen years as a genetics researcher, he has co-authored more than seventy articles in Nature, Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, and other scientific journals.

JAMIE KRAKOVER, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Jamie Krakover has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering. She has worked on spacecraft, rotorcraft, and numerous commercial and military aircraft.

PHILIP A. KRAMER, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE

Philip A. Kramer has a Ph.D. in the biomedical sciences and studies metabolism in the muscle and blood of cooperative mice and not-so-cooperative humans. He has co-authored nearly twenty manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.

K.E. LANNING, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: GEOPHYSICS

K.E. Lanning is a scientist and writer with a B.S. in physics and a M.B.A. In her geophysics career, science met art, imagining landscapes beneath the surface of the Earth. She writes SF novels under the pen name of K.E. Lanning, exploring society, humanity and our future.

ANNE M. LIPTON, M.D., PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: NEUROLOGY

Anne M. Lipton is a behavioral neurologist who specializes in dementia. Her latest work on this subject is The Common Sense Guide to Dementia for Clinicians and Caregivers (Springer, 2013).

A.R. LUCAS, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: DECISION SCIENCE

A.R. Lucas is a decision scientist with degrees in cultural anthropology, psychology, and business. She’s worked around the world in jobs ranging from archaeology to economics.

AMY MILLS, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ENGINEERING

Amy Mills has a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering and has passed the Seismic Principles Exam to become a licensed engineer in California. She also has over five years of civil engineering experience and twenty-eight years’ worth of earthquake drills.

JUDY L. MOHR, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ASTRONOMY AND OPTICS

Judy L. Mohr is an engineer by background, but a writer at heart. Her Ph.D. specialized in astronomical instrumentation, where she used stellar light to measure the horizontal air movement above the 1-meter McLellan Telescope in Tekapo, New Zealand.

REBECCA MOWRY, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: BIOLOGY

Rebecca Mowry is a wildlife biologist who specializes in carnivore and big game research and management in the western United States. She’s caught a few birds, bats, and hellbender salamanders along the way, and got a master’s degree studying river otter poop.

TERRY NEWMAN, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: BIOLOGY

Terry Newman is a writer for film, television, stage, radio, and print. In a previous life he was a research biologist investigating changes in cell structure during activity, primarily using low-temperature techniques. Nobody called him Capt. Cold, no matter how hard he tried to make them.

BIANCA NOGRADY, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: SCIENCE JOURNALISM

Bianca Nogrady is a freelance science journalist who writes for national and international publications on everything from climate change to obesity to native foods to supernovas. She’s the author of the nonfiction book The End: The Human Experience of Death (Penguin Random House Australia, 2013).

KARYNE NORTON, B.S.N., R.N., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: MEDICINE

Karyne Norton has worked as a labor and delivery nurse for thirteen years and been an avid reader for thirty years. She’s also a photographer and writer of science fiction and fantasy.

BRIE PADDOCK, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: BIOLOGY

Brie Paddock is a biology professor with a Ph.D. in biomedical science, focusing on molecular, cellular, and integrative neuroscience.

JONATHAN PEEPLES, M.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: PSYCHIATRY

Jonathan Peeples went to medical school at the University of Mississippi and completed his residency at Emory University School of Medicine. He is an emergency department psychiatrist in Atlanta, Georgia.

MATT PERKINS, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: COMPUTER SCIENCE

Matt Perkins writes code and fiction. He has over fifteen years of industry experience designing, building, and supporting web applications and enterprise software for clients large and small.

ERIC PRIMM, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ENGINEERING

Eric Primm has spent the past decade making sure the wings don’t fall off various aircraft as an engineer at Boeing. He writes fiction about space stations and nonfiction about martial arts.

PAUL REGIER, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: NEUROSCIENCE

Paul Regier is a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, investigating prior adversity and its relationship to addiction.

STEPHANIE SAUVINET, B.S.N., R.N., O.C.N., B.M.T.C.N., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ONCOLOGY

Stephanie Sauvinet is an adult and young adult science fiction writer who has been practicing as an oncology and bone marrow/stem cell transplant nurse for more than ten years.

EFFIE SEIBERG, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: TECH INDUSTRY

Effie Seiberg is a science fiction and fantasy author and a marketing consultant who works with numerous tech and mobile startups in Silicon Valley. She’s previously worked in 3D printing, on Google’s mobile products and Android, and at IBM.

DANNA STAAF, PH.D., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: MARINE BIOLOGY

Danna Staaf is a science journalist and author of the nonfiction book Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods (ForeEdge, 2017). She has a Ph.D. in marine biology and loves to both consume and produce science fiction and fantasy.

GABRIEL VIDRINE, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: MICROBIOLOGY

Gabriel Vidrine is a microbiologist who has worked in research laboratories for over a decade and is now a laboratory manager.

ROBINNE WEISS, M.S., FIELD OF EXPERTISE: ENTOMOLOGY

Robinne Weiss has been known as The Bug Lady since she was seven years old. She eventually made it official with an M.S. in entomology from Penn State University. She now writes speculative fiction and teaches about bugs in beautiful New Zealand.

SYLVIA SPRUCK WRIGLEY, FIELD OF EXPERTISE: AVIATION

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley is a pilot and aviation journalist who has been obsessing about aviation safety for more than a decade. She writes about plane crashes and faeries, which have more in common than most people might imagine.