Alan Edward Nourse

Alan E. Nourse was an American physician and science fiction writer, born in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 11, 1928, and died on July 19, 1992. He is remembered for writing both fiction and nonfiction, often bringing medicine and science directly into his stories.

After serving in the U.S. Navy's Hospital Corps, he studied at Rutgers University and then earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Alongside his medical career, he built a substantial writing career and became especially known for science fiction aimed at younger readers as well as adults.

His fiction frequently explores medical questions, ethics, and psychic or mind-related themes, which gave his work a distinctive voice within mid-century science fiction. He also wrote popular nonfiction about medicine, sometimes under the pen name Doctor X.