Author of more than 500 books on a multitude of subjects, Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) was born in Petrovichi, Russia on January 2. He emigrated to the United States in 1923, sold his first science fiction story at the age of eighteen, and went on to become one of the most prolific and well-known popularizers of science for the public in the post-Sputnik era. He died in New York City on April 6.

Asimov was a child prodigy who graduated from high school at the age of fifteen and earned his bachelor's degree at nineteen. His studies were delayed by World War II, after which he received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1948. He became an assistant professor of biochemistry at Boston University's School of Medicine in 1951. Asimov left the School of Medicine in 1958, but retained the title of associate professor, and was promoted to professor of biochemistry in...