Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia in 1920, emigrated to the United States with his family in 1923, and resided in New York for the remainder of his life. He attended Columbia University, attaining a B.S. in Chemistry in 1939, followed by an M.A. and a Ph.D. While in college, he published his first profession story, "Marooned off Vesta," in Amazing Stories in 1939. Asimov served in World War II and returned to teach in the Boston University School of Medicine.

Asimov attained his greatest success with his Foundation series, published in book form as Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. This future history of a galactic empire was avidly followed by science fiction fans as it was published and continues to be popular within the science fiction community today. His robot stories were equally popular and introduced his "Three Laws of Robotics," an ethical and moral code to be followed by robots. His fiction was well-crafted and featured both technological reality and believable technological advancement. In addition to presenting near-sentient robots, Asimov dealt with the social issues of robotics, and the implications of intelligent machines.

Perhaps as important as his fiction, Asimov was a prolific popularizer of science, writing many nonfiction pieces for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and other sources. He had the gift of both simplifying complex scientific concepts and presenting them in an interesting and accessible way, so the general reader could comprehend and enjoy contemporary science topics. In his day, he was one of the more successful popularizers of science.

Asimov authored over 500 fiction and nonfiction books, many short stories, and extensive science articles.