Dr. David Brin
David Brin, Ph.D. is a renowned scientist, best-selling author, and world-recognized futurist with over 40 years of pioneering work in science fiction writing, technology consultation, and scientific research. He currently serves as Author-in-Residence at the University of California, San Diego, and as Owner and Inventor at Epocene Communications. He has been an author, futurist, and public speaker since 1980.
David is best known for his award-winning science fiction novels that have won multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards, including the acclaimed Startide Rising (1983) and The Uplift War (1987), both of which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. His prescient 1989 ecological thriller, Earth, remarkably predicted global warming, cyberwarfare, and the World Wide Web over a decade before they became a reality.
David’s groundbreaking nonfiction work, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? (1998), won the Freedom of Speech Award from the American Library Association, establishing him as a leading voice on privacy, surveillance, and accountability in the digital age.
As a technology consultant and futurist, he has advised numerous Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, GE, Boeing, Viacom, Procter & Gamble, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Google, and SAP on matters of technological and social change. Urban Developer Magazine named him one of the four World’s Best Futurists, and he was recognized as #1 influencer in Onalytica’s Top 100 report of Artificial Intelligence influencers.
Since 2010, he has served on the council of external advisers for NASA’s Innovative and Advanced Concepts group (NIAC), which supports groundbreaking space exploration initiatives. Read No One Said It Would Be Easy and Harnessing Conflict and Competitiveness.
At Epocene Communications, which David founded in 2000, he has developed revolutionary patents for enhancing online communication. His U.S. Patent 7,124,372 for Interactive communication between a plurality of users introduces real-life conversational dynamics to digital interactions, incorporating factors such as distance, orientation, reputation, and time.
This patented technology, known as the Holocene Conversation Mode, represents a significant advance in how humans interact in virtual spaces. David has been a prominent speaker on how these technologies can transform online collaboration, particularly highlighted during his 2020 Atlantic Council presentation on rebuilding after COVID-19, where he advocated for massive infrastructure spending and advanced “meetingware and collaborationware” technologies.
David’s literary achievements span over 15 novels translated into more than 25 languages. His novel, The Postman (1985), won the Locus Award and the John W. Campbell Award and was adapted into a 1997 feature film directed by Kevin Costner. His Uplift Universe series includes six novels: Sundiver (1980), Startide Rising (1983) which won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards, The Uplift War (1987) winning Hugo and Locus Awards, followed by the Uplift Storm Trilogy comprising Brightness Reef (1995), Infinity’s Shore (1996) which won the Premio Italia for Best International Novel in 2001, and Heaven’s Reach (1998).
Other major works include The Practice Effect (1984), Heart of the Comet (1986) coauthored with Gregory Benford, Glory Season (1993), which was a 1994 Hugo nominee, and Kiln People (2002), which placed second for the Hugo Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, and John W. Campbell Memorial Award. His 2012 novel Existence continues his tradition of near-future extrapolation.
In 1999, he was selected to complete Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series with Foundation’s Triumph, bringing the legendary saga to its conclusion. Read Evolution of Cometary Nuclei as Influenced by a Dust Component and The Great Silence: The Controversy Concerning Extraterrestrial Life.
David’s short fiction has been equally celebrated, with The Crystal Spheres (1984) winning the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1985. His other notable short works include Thor Meets Captain America (1986), which placed second for the Hugo Award, The Giving Plague (1987), also placing second for the Hugo, and Stones of Significance (2000), voted Best Novelette by Analog readers.
His collections include The River of Time (1986), Otherness (1994), which won the Locus Award for Best Collection, Tomorrow Happens (2003), Through Stranger Eyes (2008), Insistence of Vision (2016), and The Best of David Brin (2021). He also created graphic novels, including The Life Eaters (2004) for DC Comics, which explored alternate WWII outcomes, and directed the 90-page hardcover Forgiveness (2001). David contributed to major anthologies, including coediting Star Wars on Trial (2006) and King Kong is Back! (2005), and authored Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World (2017) with essays about transparency and surveillance.
David earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, San Diego in 1981, studying under Nobel laureate Hannes Alfven with his dissertation titled Evolution of Cometary Nuclei as Influenced by a Dust Component. The comet model developed in his Ph.D. research is now depicted in every science show that portrays comets. Prior to this, he earned his Master’s Degree of Science in Electrical Engineering (optics) from UCSD in 1978 and a Bachelor of Science in Astrophysics from Caltech in 1973, where he graduated with honors.
At Caltech, his father took him to see Einstein play the violin when he was three. His early career included work as Technical Staff at Hughes Aircraft Research Labs from 1973 to 1977, where he specialized in microelectronics design and fabrication, including MOS and CCD processes from wafer to chip. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at both the California Space Institute and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he conducted NASA-funded studies on robotics and space station design.
Beyond his fiction, David has served as a consultant on national defense and homeland security matters for the CIA, Department of Defense, RAND Corporation, and DTRA. The U.S. Air Force conducted a six-month Delphi effort, where David served as one of their “Oracles”, providing insight into potential futures and working pro bono alongside other experts, including Lt. Gen. Mike Short.
He has appeared as an ANA Avatar Judge at XPRIZE 2019 for the $10 Million Avatar XPRIZE, evaluating robotic avatar systems for transporting human presence. His consulting work extends to privacy and transparency issues, making him a sought-after expert on the societal implications of surveillance technology.
He has authored influential essays, including Harnessing Conflict and Competitiveness in the American Bar Association’s Journal on Dispute Resolution (2000), Singularities and Nightmares: Extremes of Optimism and Pessimism About the Human Future in Nanotechnology Perceptions (2006), and Self-Addiction and Self-Righteousness in Pathological Altruism (Oxford University Press, 2012).
In 2013, David helped establish the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UCSD, where he was honored as a “distinguished alumnus” and served as a Visiting Scholar in Residence.
He has received numerous prestigious awards beyond his fiction accolades, including winning the California Library Association’s Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award, The Potomac Institute’s 2015 Navigator Award for guidance to public policy and his numerous consultations helping formulate ways of dealing with the future, the McGannon Communication Policy Research Award, and was the first annual National Endowment for the Humanities/Hannah Arendt Center Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Bard College in 2015. His young adult novel, Sky Horizon (2007), won the Hal Clement Award for best science fiction novel for young adult readers in 2008.
He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Planetary Society and has been a keynote speaker at over 200 major conferences, as well as numerous science fiction conventions.
David’s media presence extends across television, where he has appeared on programs including The Universe, the History Channel’s Life After People (their highest-rated show), CNN, Fox News, ABC, NBC, Nova, and served as a regular cast member on The ArciTECHS. He has given TEDx talks and appeared at the World Bank, United Nations General Assembly, and The Royal Society. Watch What’s next — the horizon of our dreams: David Brin at TEDxSanDiego and TEDxBrussels – David Brin – Target 2061: Reinventing Civilization Across Half a Century.
David designed the game Tribes for Steve Jackson Games (1998) and wrote the storyline for the video game Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (2000) for Dreamcast.
His scientific publications cover a diverse range of topics, from astronautics and optics to neoteny in human evolution, and have appeared in journals such as The Astrophysical Journal, Applied Optics, Nature, Popular Science, and the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. He has contributed articles to Salon Magazine, WIRED, Liberty Magazine, OMNI, and serves as an invited reviewer for the Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Times (London), and New Scientist.
His “Webs of Wonder Contest” offered cash prizes to promote educational websites that help teachers convey complex subjects through exciting stories. Listen to Exploring Horizons at the Institute for Accelerating Change and The Future And You.
David lives in San Diego County, California, with his wife, Dr. Cheryl Ann Brigham, and their three children: Benjamin (born 1992), Ariana (born 1994), and Terren (born 1996). He maintains a blog titled Contrary Brin, which focuses on science, technology, and the future, and has been active since 2004, engaging with readers through his newsletter.
His heritage includes Polish Jewish ancestry from the area around Konin, with his grandfather having been drafted into the Russian army and fighting in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.
David has published over 370 academic articles, book chapters, scientific abstracts, book reviews, and articles for the general public. He created the educational initiative Out of Time series for young adults. In 2003, Joi Ito credited him with initiating the moblogging movement by transmitting his life experiences in real-time from 1994 to 1996. His professional specialties include writing, public speaking, consulting, and invention, with expertise spanning national defense, SETI, nanotechnology, and philanthropy.
Watch David Brin: What’s Important Isn’t Me. And It Isn’t You. It’s Us! and David Brin on the Future of Humanity. Watch his collection of video presentations.
Read IxDA Stories: Meet David Brin.
Visit his LinkedIn profile, Homepage, Wikipedia page, and ResearchGate profile. Follow him on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and X.