Gregory Benford

Template:Short description Template:Infobox writer Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of Reason magazine.<ref name="vote">Template:Cite web</ref>

Benford wrote the Galactic Center Saga science fiction novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977).<ref name="news12">Template:Cite news</ref> The series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient electromechanical life.

In 1969 he wrote "The Scarred Man",<ref>Template:Cite book, cited at Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="scarred_man">Template:Cite magazine Republished on author's website at http://www.gregorybenford.com/extra/the-scarred-man-returns/ .</ref> the first story about a computer virus (based on a real computer virus he had spread<ref>Afterthoughts, 1999</ref>),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> published in 1970.

Biography

Benford was born in Mobile, Alabama and grew up in Robertsdale and Fairhope.<ref>Down the River Road — the Introduction | GREGORY BENFORD Retrieved 2011-11-16.</ref> Graduating Phi Beta Kappa, he received a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1963 from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, followed by a Master of Science from the University of California, San Diego in 1965, and a doctorate there in 1967. That same year he married Joan Abbe, with whom he had two children.<ref name="LAT">Template:Cite news</ref> Benford modeled characters in several of his novels after his wife, most prominently the heroine of Artifact. She died in 2002.<ref>"Other Obituaries," Locus, May 2002, p.70</ref>

Benford has an identical twin brother, James (Jim) Benford, with whom he has collaborated on science fiction stories.<ref>"ISFDB – James Bedford"</ref> Both got their start in science fiction fandom, with Gregory being a co-editor of the science fiction fanzine Void. At one point, Benford said he was an atheist because he could not reconcile the evil in the world with a benevolent God.<ref>"Evil and Me", Benford; in 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists</ref> However, he has returned to the Episcopal Church where he is a communicant at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Laguna Beach.<ref>Parish Register of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Laguna Beach CA</ref>

He has been a long-time resident of Laguna Beach, California.<ref name="LAT"/>

Writing career

Gregory Benford's first professional sale was the story "Stand-In" in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (June 1965), which won second prize in a short story contest based on a poem by Doris Pitkin Buck. In 1969, he began writing a science column for Amazing Stories.

Benford tends to write hard science fiction which incorporates the research he is doing as a practical scientist. He has worked on collaborations with authors William Rotsler, David Brin and Gordon Eklund. His time-travel novel Timescape (1980) won both the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. This scientific procedural novel eventually loaned its title to a line of science fiction published by Pocket Books. In the late 1990s, he wrote Foundation's Fear, one of an authorized sequel trilogy to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Other novels published in that period include several near-future science thrillers: Cosm (1998), The Martian Race (1999) and Eater (2000).Template:Citation needed

Benford has served as an editor of numerous alternate history anthologies, as well as collections of Hugo Award winners.

He has been nominated for four Hugo Awards (for two short stories and two novellas) and 13 Nebula Awards (in all categories). In addition to Timescape, he won the Nebula for the novelette "If the Stars Are Gods" (with Eklund).

Benford was a guest of honour at Aussiecon Three, the 1999 Worldcon. He remainsTemplate:As of? a regular contributor to science fiction fanzines, for example Apparatchik (defunct as of 1997).

In 2016 Benford was the recipient of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society Forry Award Lifetime Achievement Award in the Field of Science Fiction.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Contributions to science and speculative science

File:Greg Benford Eaton 2008-05-17.png

Gregory Benford, 2008

Gregory Benford is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of California, Irvine. With more than 200 scientific publications, his research encompassed both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. His research has been supported by NSF, NASA, AFOSR, DOE and other agencies. He is an ongoingTemplate:When advisor to NASA, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the CIA.

Benford's work in physics at the University of California focused on theoretical and experimental plasma physics, including studies of extremely strong turbulence, particularly in astrophysical contexts, and studies of magnetic structures from the Galactic Center to large-scale galactic jets. Working in collaboration with, among others, science fiction writers Cramer, Forward, and Landis, Benford worked on a theoretical study of the physics of wormholes, which pointed out that wormholes, if formed in the early universe, could still exist in the present day if they were wrapped in a negative-mass cosmic string.<ref>Template:Cite journal The press release Template:Webarchive on the paper can be found on Landis' website.</ref> Such wormholes could potentially be detected by gravitational lensing.

In 2004, Benford proposed that the harmful effects of global warming could be reduced by the construction of a rotating Fresnel lens 1,000 kilometres across, floating in space at the Lagrangian point L1. According to Benford, this lens would diffuse the light from the Sun and reduce the solar energy reaching the Earth by approximately 0.5% to 1%. He estimated that this would cost around US$10 billion. His plan has been commented on in a variety of forums.<ref>See Russell Dovey, "Supervillainy: Astroengineering Global Warming and Bill Christensen, "Reduce Global Warming by Blocking Sunlight" Template:Webarchive. Also see Solar radiation management§Dispersive solutions.</ref> A similar space sunshade was proposed in 1989 by J. T. Early,<ref>See footnote 23 in E. Teller, L. Wood, and R. Hyde, "Global Warming and Ice Ages: Prospects for Physics-Based Modulation of Global Change" Template:Webarchive.</ref> and again in 1997 by Edward Teller, Lowell Wood, and Roderick Hyde.<ref>E. Teller, L. Wood, and R. Hyde, "Global Warming and Ice Ages: Prospects for Physics-Based Modulation of Global Change" Template:Webarchive.</ref> In 2006, Benford pointed out one possible danger in this approach: if this lens were built and global warming were avoided, there would be less incentive to reduce greenhouse gases, and humans might continue to produce too much carbon dioxide until it caused some other environmental catastrophe, such as a chemical change in ocean water that could be disastrous to ocean life.<ref>Comments at the 64th World Science Fiction Convention, August 2006.</ref>

Benford serves on the board of directors and the steering committee of the Mars Society.

He has advocated human cryopreservation, for example by signing an open letter to support research into cryonics,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> being a member of Alcor,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and by being an advisor to a UK cryonics and cryopreservation advocacy group.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Gregory Benford retired from the University of California in 2006 in order to found and develop Genescient Corporation. Genescient is a new generation biotechnology company that claims to combine evolutionary genomics with massive selective screening to analyze and exploit the genetics of model animal and human whole genomes.

Scientific awards and recognition

• Phi Beta Kappa
• Woodrow Wilson Fellow
• Fellow of the American Physical Society
• Visiting Fellow
  • Cambridge University
  • University of Turin
  • University of Bologna.
• 1995 Lord Prize for contributions to science
• 2006 Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine

Benford's law of controversy

Benford's law of controversy is an adage from the 1980 novel Timescape:<ref name="Benford1992">Template:Cite book</ref>

The adage was quoted in an international drug policy article in a peer-reviewed social science journal.<ref>Template:Cite journal; official archival copy requires site registration. The article is a followup to pieces the author already published in Science (1997) and the Annual Review of Psychology (1998)</ref>

Selected bibliography

Galactic Center Saga

• In the Ocean of Night (1977)
• Across the Sea of Suns (1984)
• Great Sky River (1987)
• Tides of Light (1989)
• Furious Gulf (1994)
• Sailing Bright Eternity (1996)
• "A Hunger for the Infinite" a novella published in the 1999 anthology Far Horizons

Further reading

• "Old Legends" (1995), an essay by Benford about the history of science and science fiction, Edward Teller, Star Wars, Ronald Reagan, Larry Niven and Arthur C. Clarke. Essay is linked at 4.2, left-side header. More reprints: [1]

External links

• Gregory Benford official website Template:Webarchive
• Template:Isfdb name
• Template:IMDb name
• Template:C-SPAN
• Giant rotating space lens, a possible engineering solution for global warming proposed by Benford in 2004
• "Terraforming Ganymede with Robert A. Heinlein" by Gregory Benford: part 1, part 2
• Homepage at UCI
• List of works at Fantastic Fiction
• "Killer Bs" (Brin, Benford, Bear, Baxter and B-, er, Vinge) mailing list
• 2012 Interview at Locus (magazine)
• The Gregory Benford Papers (74.25 linear feet) housed at the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy Template:Webarchive of the University of California, Riverside Libraries.