# Scientists and/or mathematicians who became famous authors\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957 "2013-08-11T20:11:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/21 "2013-08-11T23:29:06Z")
Another distinguished physicist: Robert Forward ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/22 "2013-08-11T23:59:06Z")
Primo Levi ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/23 "2013-08-12T00:04:52Z")
How come no one has mentioned the wheelchair guy? ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/24 "2013-08-12T00:06:27Z")
Catherine Asaro has a PhD in chemical physics from Harvard, and a B.S. with highest honors in chemistry from UCLA. And she still teaches math, physics and chemistry while not writing (it says on Wikipedia). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/25 "2013-08-12T00:25:46Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Carl Sagan was a professor of Astronomy at Cornell, an astronomical researcher, and [SF author](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_%28novel%29), but he wasn’t very prolific as a fiction writer. He probably didn’t even write **Contact**. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/26 "2013-08-12T00:29:17Z")
> [@](#): > > How come no one has mentioned the wheelchair guy? Because Hawking hasn’t written anything but nonfiction science books. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/27 "2013-08-12T00:43:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > He probably didn’t even write **Contact**. Whoa! Further info? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/28 "2013-08-12T01:34:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Primo Levi Great one! ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/29 "2013-08-12T01:47:21Z")
Robert Heinlein worked as an aeronautical engineer for the Navy during WWII. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/30 "2013-08-12T01:57:43Z")
Arthur C. Clarke earned his degree in mathematics and physics and is credited with the idea of using geosynchronous satellites for telecommunications. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/31 "2013-08-12T02:21:34Z")
A lot of the ones that first came to mind have aklready been listed. (And why limit it by saying "they didn’t _regularly_ publish, or _they weren’t real practicing scientists_? If they got the required degrees and published at least one decent story, that counts for something, and is not a trivial accomplishment. Who cares is Solzhenitsyn ever actually earned money as a mathematician? And did Brian May ever draw pay as an astrophysicist? ) **Larry Gonick** , like Tom Lehrer, got his mathematics degrees at Harvard (BS and MS) and spent a year at the Tata Institute for Fundamemental Research in Bombay. He’s the author of multiple volumes of _The Cattoon Guide to…_, including _The Cartoon Guide to the Universe/modern World_ in five volumes. He spent several years as Cartoonist-in-residence at MIT. editor Groff Conklin produced a volume, first published in 1962, called **Great Science Fiction by Scientists**. In addition to the already-mentioned Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke and John Taine/eric Temple Bell, it also had a piece by rocket scientist (and essayist extraordinaire) **Willy Ley** , and pieces by \*\*J.B. S. Haldane Julian Huxley Leo Szilard\*\* (!) and **Norbert Weiner** (!!) (Who cares if they didn’t publish “regularly”) It also has pieces by names unfamiliar to me – \*\*Miles J. Breuer Ralph S. Cooper Chan Davis James V. Mcconnell John R. Peirce R.S. Richardson Louis S. Ridenour \*\* There’s also one by **Chad Oliver** , who I didn’t realize was a scientist. [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?15925](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?15925) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/32 "2013-08-12T03:06:18Z")
Chad Oliver was an anthropologist. He was a real, practicing scientist but we’ve already questioned whether the social sciences should count. Miles J. Breuer was a doctor. I can’t stop anybody from bringing up any names of any kind, but I’ll note that the OP did use the word “famous” to describe author, not scientist. And if you use his footnote of “scientists or mathematicians best known for their literary achievements and not their scientific accomplishments” the list gets real short real fast. Asimov and Clarke and Doc Smith would make the second list. So would a bunch of others known for their sf, including Brin and Landis and Benford but probably not Cramer or Sagan or Hoyle. Outside the sf field, Primo Levi is maybe the best example. _The Periodic Table_ is flat-out great. If doctors are included, a bunch of famous names can be added: poets William Carlos Williams and Oliver Wendell Holmes, novelists Anton Chekhov, Kobo Abe and Somerset Maugham, that Conan Doyle guy, and bunches of people in and around sf again, from Michael Crichton to Stanislaw Lem. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/33 "2013-08-12T03:11:49Z")
MacSpon writes: \> Catherine Asaro has a PhD in chemical physics from Harvard, and a B.S. with \> highest honors in chemistry from UCLA. And she still teaches math, physics and \> chemistry while not writing (it says on Wikipedia). I know Catherine a little. She has done a lot of things. She was a ballet dancer for a while. She was a physicist for a while (doing research, not teaching). She now spends most of her time writing science fiction and fantasy. She’s part of a rock group. Her teaching now is mostly tutoring gifted high school students in science. She’s been the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She serves on a government advisory board. And, incidentally, she looks about twenty years younger than her actual age. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/34 "2013-08-12T04:37:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And did Brian May ever draw pay as an astrophysicist? Sort of (maybe). He left off his doctorate studies when Queen’s popularity took off, and resumed those studies much later, finally being awarded his Ph.D. in 2007. He then served as chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University (taking over the post from Cherie Blair, the wife of former British PM Tony Blair) from 2008 to 2013. While he was (during that time) working as an academician, it’s not clear to me if he was doing any work in astrophysics, or how much work being chancellor required (given that, during that time, he was also working on various Queen-related projects). May also has co-written a [book on astrophysics](http://www.amazon.com/Bang-Complete-Universe-Brian-May/dp/1780971699/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376282181&sr=1-1&keywords=bang+the+complete+history+of+the+universe), and apparently made a couple of appearances on TV and radio programs about stars and stargazing. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/35 "2013-08-12T04:51:17Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Saunders’ eclecticism made me wonder what other successful authors have started as scientists (or mathematicians). With a bit of thought, I came up with: > > - the biochemist Isaac Asimov (for his SF work, not for his popular accounts of science) To pick a nit, Asimov was a world famous science fiction author several years before he got his PhD. But the first guy I thought of was Richard Dawkins, whose best (I think) selling book is about atheism. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/36 "2013-08-12T05:21:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Bill Amend, of the _Foxtrot_ comic strip, was originally a physicist. > > So is Lyndon Hardy, who wrote _Master of the Five Magics_, though I don’t know how famous he is. No, not true. [Bill Amend - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Amend) Bill has a bachelor of science degree in physics from Amherst. I do not believe he ever got a masters, but I am not certain. In any event, he has not ever held a position as a physicist to the best of my knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/37 "2013-08-12T05:23:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Sort of (maybe). > > He left off his doctorate studies when Queen’s popularity took off, and resumed those studies much later, finally being awarded his Ph.D. in 2007. He then served as chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University (taking over the post from Cherie Blair, the wife of former British PM Tony Blair) from 2008 to 2013. The Chancellor of a British university is an honorary, ceremonial post, given to people who are some sort of celebrity (of a relatively respectable sort) in the wider world. Often it will be a member of the royal family or something like that. It is not a real job, and they do little work for the university except sometimes (by no means always) handing out the degrees in the degree ceremony. The real head of a British university is the _Vice_ Chancellor. It is he, or she, who really runs things. In any case, even if Brian May had been Vice Chancellor of a university, that would say nothing about his scientific credentials. His Wikipedia entry does not seem to indicate that he has done any scientific research since completing his Ph.D. On the other hand, a British Ph.D., unlike an American one, is entirely a research degree, and anyone who has been awarded one has been judged to have made a real and significant contribution to research in their field (and very often that research will be published). Someone with British science Ph.D., even if they do not continue a career in science, can fairly be said to be (or to have been) a real scientist. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I can’t stop anybody from bringing up any names of any kind, but I’ll note that the OP did use the word “famous” to describe author, not scientist. And if you use his footnote of “scientists or mathematicians best known for their literary achievements and not their scientific accomplishments” the list gets real short real fast. > > Asimov and Clarke and Doc Smith would make the second list. So would a bunch of others known for their sf, including Brin and Landis and Benford but probably not Cramer or Sagan or Hoyle. Outside the sf field, Primo Levi is maybe the best example. _The Periodic Table_ is flat-out great. In Britain, back in the day, Hoyle’s SF was pretty well known and widely read, and probably read by some people who knew little about his actual scientific achievements. I read and enjoyed several of his Sf books when I was a boy. (Not the later ones, co-written with his son, which were generally held to be inferior to the first few, I think.) The two _Andromeda_ stories were also successful TV series. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/38 "2013-08-12T05:28:50Z")
May has been published in peer review publications. He is listed as a visiting researcher at the [Imperial College Website](http://astro.ic.ac.uk/bmay/home). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/39 "2013-08-12T11:46:38Z")
KarlGauss, were you limiting the subject of this thread to fiction authors? People are starting to list scientists who wrote strictly nonfiction. Again, if the thread drifts off into that, it’s going to be a very long thread. robert\_columbia writes: \> Does linguistics count? If so, J. R. R. Tolkien surely belongs on the list. Tolkien was never in the field of linguistics. He taught Medieval literature at Oxford. He never taught linguistics courses and never published any papers on linguistics. Yes, he knew a lot of languages, but that doesn’t make him an expert on linguistics. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957/40 "2013-08-12T12:42:58Z")
Danicka Mckellar has a Ph.D in Math from UCLA. Though not an author, she is a working actress. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-and-or-mathematicians-who-became-famous-authors/665957.md?page=3)