Isaac Asimov

The Russian-born American biochemist and writer Isaac Asimov, (Jan.2 1920 - Apr.6 1992). Published his 300th book, Opus 300, in December 1984; his 200th book appeared in 1979. He has written popular works on science and the history of science, as well as a number of science-fiction classics, including I Robot (1950), The Foundation Trilogy (1951-53), and The Gods Themselves (1972), which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Asimov received a doctorate in biochemistry from Columbia University in 1948 and since 1949 has been a professor of biochemistry at Boston University. A Choice of Catastrophes (1979) demonstrates his effective approach in writing about science for children and nonscientific adults: he examines various notions about how the world might end, incorporating geology, bacteriology, social history, and astrophysics in his discussion. Recent Asimov works include In The Beginning (1981), in which the biblical book of Genesis is explored from both the fundamentalist and the evolutionist point of view; and The Measure of the Universe and Counting the Eons (both 1983). Asimov has also published volumes of his autobiography.