Timothy Ferris

Not to be confused with the entrepreneurial writer Tim Ferriss or the Australian musician Tim Farriss.
Timothy Ferris

Ferris in 2009
Born (1944-08-24) August 24, 1944
Residence United States
Nationality American
Fields Astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, astrobiology, space science, planetary science
Education Coral Gables High School
Alma mater Northwestern University School of Law
Notable awards
Website
www.timothyferris.com

Timothy Ferris (born August 29, 1944) is a science writer and the best-selling author of twelve books, including The Science of Liberty (2010) and Coming of Age in the Milky Way (1988), for which he was awarded the American Institute of Physics Prize and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.[1] He also wrote The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report (1997), a popular science book on the study of the universe.

Background and education

Ferris is a native of Miami, Florida, and a graduate of Coral Gables High School. He attended Northwestern University, graduating in 1966 with majors in English and Communication,[2] and studied for one year at the Northwestern University Law School before joining United Press International as a reporter, working in New York City.[3]

Writing and NASA

After starting his career as a newspaper reporter, Ferris became an editor at Rolling Stone magazine. Ferris helped produce the Voyager Golden Record, an artifact of human civilization containing music, sounds of Earth and encoded photographs launched aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft. He has served as a consultant to NASA on long-term space exploration policy, and was among the journalists selected as candidates to fly aboard the Space Shuttle in 1986. He was also a friend of and collaborator with American astronomer Carl Sagan.

Honors

Ferris is a Guggenheim fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He won the Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1986, and has twice won the American Institute of Physics science-writing medal and the American Association for the Advancement of Science writing prize.

Academe

Ferris has taught astronomy, English, history, journalism, and philosophy at four universities; he is currently an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Books

Articles and essays

Films

References

External links

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