Catherine Asaro | |
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 Asaro in 2009 | |
| Born | (1955-11-06)November 6, 1955 (age 70) Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | Chemistry,physics,chemical physics |
| Alma mater | UCLA,Harvard University |
| Genre | Science fiction,fantasy |
| Notable works | Saga of the Skolian Empire |
| Notable awards | Nebula Award 2001, 2008 |
| Relatives | Frank Asaro (father) |
| Website | |
| catherineasaro | |
Catherine Ann Asaro (born November 6, 1955) is an Americanscience fiction andfantasy author, singer and teacher. She is best known for her books about the Ruby Dynasty, called theSaga of the Skolian Empire.
Catherine Asaro was born on November 6, 1955,[1] inOakland, California,[2] and grew up inEl Cerrito, California. She attendedKennedy High School in Richmond, California, as part of theRichmond Voluntary Integration Plan.[3][4] She has a B.S. with highest honors in chemistry fromUCLA, and both a master's in physics and a PhD in chemical physics fromHarvard University.[5]
When not writing and making appearances at conventions and signings, Asaro teaches math, physics, and chemistry.[6] She was director of the Chesapeake Math Program and has coached various nationally ranked teams with home, private, and public school students, in particular the Chesapeake teams for national tournaments such as the Princeton and Harvard-MIT competitions. She also taught a gifted program in math and science at the Yang Academy in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her students have placed at the top levels in numerous national competitions, including theUnited States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) and theUnited States of America Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS).[7]
Asaro is a member of SIGMA, a think tank of speculative writers that advises the government as to future trends affecting national security.[8] She is also known for her advocacy of bringing girls and women intoSTEM fields and for increased diversity, and for challenging gender roles and literary expectations in her fiction.[9][10] She has been an invited speaker or visiting professor for various institutions, including theNational Academy of Sciences,Harvard,Georgetown University,NASA, The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), The Global Competitiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia, the New Zealand National ConText Writer's program, the University of Maryland, theUS Naval Academy, and many other institutions.[11]
A former ballet andjazz dancer, Catherine Asaro has performed with dance companies and in musicals on both coasts and in Ohio. She founded and served as artistic director and a principal dancer for two dance groups at Harvard: The Mainly Jazz Dance Company and the Harvard University Ballet. After she graduated, her undergraduate students took over Mainly Jazz and made it into a club at the college.[7]
She has completed two terms as president ofScience Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) (2003–2005) and during her tenure established theAndre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.[8][12]
Her husband was John Kendall Cannizzo (1957–2018), anastrophysicist atNASA.[13] They have one daughter, a ballet dancer who studied mathematics at theUniversity of Cambridge and UC Berkeley.[14]
Catherine Asaro is the daughter ofFrank Asaro, the nuclear chemist who discovered theiridium anomaly that led the team ofLuis Alvarez,Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro, andHelen Michel to postulate thatan asteroid collided with the Earth 66 million years ago and causedmass extinctions, including the demise of the dinosaurs.
The Saga of the Skolian Empire, informally called the Skolian Saga, is a series of science fiction novels,novellas and novelettes revolving around characters from an interstellar empire known as theSkolian Empire and their power struggle with the rivalEubian Concord. The arc of the books unfolds over several generations of characters and revolves around political intrigues, but also contains subplots regardingromance,physics,bio-enhancements, and virtualcomputer networks.
Asaro is known as ahard science fiction writer for the scientific depth of her work. The amount of science varies from book to book, with novels such asPrimary Inversion,The Radiant Seas, andSpherical Harmonic on the most scientifically dense end of the spectrum, including elements such as equations and diagrams ofquantum mechanicalwave functions andKlein bottles.Stanley Schmidt, the long time editor ofAnalog magazine, wrote thatPrimary Inversion is "an impressive first novel; not just a good story, but the kind of speculation we too seldom see – really new science that just might be possible." Asaro is noted as one of the few female science fiction writers who also has a doctorate in hard science, in Asaro's case a PhD from Harvard in theoretical Chemical Physics.[15]
Asaro is also noted for including sophisticated mathematical concepts in her fiction. The method of space travel used in the Skolian Empire books comes from a paper Asaro wrote on complex variables and special relativity that appeared in theAmerican Journal of Physics.[16][17] The novelSpherical Harmonic involves an imagined universe based on theHilbert space described by thespherical harmoniceigenfunctions that solve theLaplace Equation, and some prose in the book is written in the shape of thesinusoidal waves found in the spherical harmonics.[18] Her novelThe Quantum Rose is an allegory toquantumscattering theory and is dedicated to her doctoral advisors and mentors in the subject,Alex Dalgarno,Kate Kirby, andEric J. Heller. The novella "Aurora in Four Voices" includes topics ranging fromFourier series to integration problems incalculus. In essays in the back of some of her novels, Asaro explains the mathematical and physics basis of the ideas used in the books, in particularSpherical Harmonic,The Quantum Rose, andThe Moon's Shadow. In the anthologyAurora in Four Voices (which includes the novella of the same name), Asaro describes the mathematical basis of several stories in the anthology, including the use of Fourier transforms,Riemann sheets, and complex numbers in "The SpaceTime Pool."[19][self-published source?][20][21]
The Diamond Star Project is acollaboration between Catherine Asaro and the rock musiciansPoint Valid. The project resulted in a CD,Diamond Star (Starflight Music, April 2009), which is a "soundtrack" for the book,Diamond Star (Baen Books). The novel tells the story of Del-Kurj, a Ruby Dynasty prince who would rather be a rock singer than sit on the throne. The lyrics to the songs appear in the novelDiamond Star and were the inspiration for the CD.[22]
Point Valid is an alternative band originating inBaltimore, Maryland, with Hayim Ani on vocals and guitar, Adam Leve on drums and Max Vidaver on guitar. Ani wrote most of the music for the CD, and Asaro wrote most of the lyrics, as well as music for three songs. Ani also contributed three original compositions, both music and lyrics. Most of the vocals are by Ani, with a few by Asaro. The CD has twelve songs, eleven originals and a cover of "Sound of Silence". Asaro, who did not know how to sing, took voice lessons in preparation for the recordings, and continues to train and perform. Asaro has described how the collaboration inspired her work, as exemplified by the song "Emeralds", which she was not able to finish until she and Ani were in the studio recording his vocals.[23]
During 2009, the Diamond Star Project expanded to include Donald Wolcott, a jazz pianist who accompanied Asaro in concerts.[23][24] In 2010, Starflight Music released the EPGoodbye Note by Asaro and Wolcott, which includes the song "No Answers with in Paradisum" from theDiamond Star soundtrack, rewritten and sung by Asaro.[25] In 2010, Marty Pell joined the Diamond Star Project as an additional pianist, and in 2011, Greg Adams replaced Wolcott as Asaro's primary accompanist.[26]
In 2018, Asaro teamed up with author and songwriterArlan Andrews to do the Celtic rock song "Ancient Ages".[27]
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