Mid-century actress Hedy Lamarr made some discoveries that contributed heavily to the use of radar in WW II.
Over the decades, there have been persistent rumors that Rush drummer Neil Peart has a Ph.D., but he doesn’t. He has, however, written several critically acclaimed (and very good) books, both before and after the loss of his first family in the late 1990s.
Bruce Springsteen’s drummer, whose name escapes me right now, is a licensed attorney.
Cordwainer Smith is not famous outside the SF arena, but in his civilian identity as Paul Linebarger, he was a political science PHD, an accomplished Asiatic Studies professor at Duke and Johns Hopkins, and the author of a classic textbook on psychological warfare.
Thanks for the additional info. I sort of suspected that was the case, esp. given that he took over the position from Tony Blair’s wife (who is a barrister, in addition to being the spouse of the Prime Minister when she held the chancellorship).
I guess if we want to continue stretching the inclusion criteria I mentioned in the OP, we might even include the high-powered constitutional lawyer and scholar Laurence Tribe, since he did start off, after all, with an undergraduate degree in mathematics from a place called Harvard (graduating summa cum laude at that).
In fact, he has authored many books, some of which may even be in keeping with the original thrust of the OP (although I doubt it).
Other doctors that come to mind are A J Cronin and Richard Gordon. I don’t know whether C S Forester would qualify since he left medical school before competing his degree.
Nevil Shute was an aeronautical engineer who designed British British British airships before becoming a famous novelist .
And the very prolific Frank G. Slaughter though he’s mostly forgotten now.
Singer/songwriter Art Garfunkel has an M.A. in mathematics from Columbia and also completed coursework toward a doctorate in mathematics education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
It’s because we’ve been limiting works to fiction. If you want to include nonfiction, then it’s an endlessly huge subject and not an interesting one. I may own 1000 nonfiction books by scientists myself.
