AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion

Biography

Mary Doria Russell grew up near Chicago in the 1950s, a time when the Cubs were even worse than they are today. Without the dose of reality most people get from lousy grades, she continued to go to school until she earned a perfectly useless PhD in paleoanthropology at the University of Michigan in 1983. Against all odds, she managed to get a job teaching human gross anatomy at Case Western Reserve University in the 1980s, but eventually got fed up with Academe and left to write. Her first two novels, The Sparrow, and Children of God are considered classics of science fiction and remain steady sellers, translated into over a dozen languages. Both books struck a deep chord with readers for their respectful but unblinking consideration of fundamental religious questions. She has received eight national and international literary awards and was a finalist for several others, which has had the same lamentable effect on her behavior as getting good grades: she has continued to write, and Random House is bringing her third book out next month.