Isaac Asimov

Born in Petrovichi, in what is now Russia, and raised in Brooklyn after his family moved to the United States when he was a child, Isaac Asimov became both a scientist and a writer. He earned a doctorate in chemistry at Columbia University and later taught biochemistry at Boston University.

Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books, ranging from science fiction and mysteries to history and astronomy for general readers. He is especially remembered for the Foundation series and for his robot stories, which helped popularize the famous Three Laws of Robotics.

His nonfiction made complicated ideas feel clear and welcoming, and his fiction shaped generations of readers and writers. Along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he is often grouped among science fiction’s "Big Three."