Guest of Honor

Catherine Asaro has authored about thirty books, all published by major houses, including science fiction, thrillers, and fantasy. Among her many honors, her novel The Quantum Rose and novella “The Spacetime Pool” both won the Nebula® Award. She is a multiple Hugo nominee and a multiple winner of the AnLab from Analog magazine. Her most recent books are The Vanished Seas and Lightning Strike Book II.

Catherine has a doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard (also a masters in physics from Harvard), and a BS in chemistry from UCLA. Her research specialized in applying the mathematical methods of physics to problems in quantum physics and chemistry. Her paper “Complex Speeds and Special Relativity” (The American Journal of Physics, April 1996) forms the basis for the starship drive in her fiction. She directed the Chesapeake Math Program for many years. Her students distinguished themselves in many national programs, including the USA Mathematical Olympiad, the USA Physics Olympiad, and the Harvard-MIT Math Contest.

Catherine has appeared as a speaker at many institutions including the Library of Congress, Georgetown’s Communication, Culture, and Technology program, the New Zealand National ConText Writer’s program, the Global Competitiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia, and the US Naval Academy. She had been the Guest of Honor at science fiction cons across the US and abroad, including the National Science Fiction Conventions of both Denmark and New Zealand. She served two terms as president for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and is a member of SIGMA, a think tank that advises the government as to future trends affecting national security. She also appears as a vocalist at clubs and conventions. Her most recent single, the Celtic-themed song Ancient Ages (written by Arlan Andrews) placed on the Blast-FM top 100 in 2020.

A former ballet and jazz 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, which was also the parent company of the Harvard University Ballet. After she graduated, her undergraduate students took over Mainly Jazz and made it into a club at the college. In 1993, the Harvard University Ballet became a separate group called the Harvard Ballet Company.

Catherine can be reached a www.catherineasaro.net, and she has a Patreon page at www.patreon.com/CatherineAsaro.