Background

Robert Forward was born on August 15, 1932, in Geneva, New York.

Education

Robert Forward got his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland in 1954. His graduate fellowship permitted him to study physics at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he earned a master's degree in applied physics in 1958. Besides, Robert completed his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland in 1965. His dissertation was devoted to Detectors for Dynamic Gravitational Fields, for the development of a bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation.

Career

After an education in 1954 Robert Forward served in the United States Air Force for two years, he reached the rank of captain. Then, he received his master's degree and started to work at the Hughes Aircraft Company Corporate Research Laboratories in Malibu. The year he left Hughes, Robert Forward founded his own company, Forward Unlimited, a consulting firm specializing in innovative space propulsion systems and "exotic physics." In 1994 Robert was a co-founder of the Tethers Unlimited with Robert Hoyt, which made cables for the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He served there as a chief scientist and chairman to 2002.

Robert Forward devoted his research efforts to propulsion systems for space travel. He studied the potential for antimatter propulsion (similar to the system that powers the Starship Enterprise on "Star Trek") for the Air Force and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Also, he was a creator of the gravitational radiation antenna, the first device of its kind, which detects gravity waves.

When Robert Forward became a senior scientist at Hughes in 1974, he began to work on his first science-fiction novel, Dragon's Egg, which, as with all his later books, was based on scientific fact. With that book, Robert established a reputation as a creator of fantastic worlds that solidly based on scientific principles. He explained that he had advised so many science fiction writers on the technical details of space flight and other scientific issues that he decided to take up writing himself. So, Robert Forward retired from Hughes in 1987 to spend more time on his writing, impressing reviewers and readers alike with his fantastically imaginative world-building.

Robert Forward's books include tales about aliens and civilizations existing on neutron stars, closely orbiting binary planets, and in the clouds above the surface of Saturn. However, at times he was criticized for thin plotlines and shallow characterizations that some felt critics took second place behind his scientifically accurate settings. Nevertheless, Robert found many fans with such novels as Timemaster, Camelot 30K, and Saturn Rukh. In his final book, Saturn Rukh, his attention to accuracy led him to include an appendix of mathematical tables and astronomical diagrams for readers interested in verifying the maneuvers of the book's spacecraft.

In addition to his works of science fiction, Robert Forward also published over 150 scientific papers and the nonfiction books Future Magic and Indistinguishable from Magic, which speculate on the scientific advances of the future. He was also the author, with Joel Davis, of Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics.

Achievements

• Robert Forward was widely known as a physicist and writer. He was an acclaimed author of "hard" or technically factual science-fiction novels. Robert's work included ten science fiction novels, the sequel to Dragon's Egg, and three works of science fact plus numerous popular science articles and short stories. He received much praise for his science fiction novels.
  
  Also, Robert Forward was a brilliant scientist who held twenty patents and whose gravitational radiation antenna, was the first device of its kind, which detects gravity waves. It is currently on display in the Smithsonian Institute. Besides, Robert was the founder of the Forward Unlimited and Tethers Unlimited.

Works

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  • Return to Rocheworld

    (In Return to Rocheworld, the humans from Earth and their ...)

    1993
  • Saturn Rukh

    (A ship becomes stranded on a huge flying creature that li...)

    1997
  • Indistinguishable From Magic

    (An intergalactic adventure applies all the theories of mo...)

    1995
  • Rescued From Paradise

    (Decades after crash landing on the paradise moon of Roche...)

    1995
  • Ocean Under the Ice

    (In Ocean Under the Ice, the human explorers of the Barnar...)

    1994
  • Camelot 30K

    (When humankind discovers intelligent life in the Oort Clo...)

    1993
  • Future Magic

    (The scientist and author Robert Forward explores the real...)

    1988
  • Marooned on Eden

    (Armed with millions of years worth of technological innov...)

    1993
  • Mirror Matter

    (Mirror Matter is the answer to the skeptics who say that ...)

    1988
  • Rocheworld

    (This first manned mission to another star brings the disc...)

    1990
  • Starquake

    (Starquake, the sequel to Dragons Egg, takes place on the ...)

    1985
  • Dragon's Egg 1980
  • Flight of the Dragonfly 1984
  • Martian Rainbow 1991
  • Timemaster 1992

Views

In his scientific career, Robert Forward was a leading proponent that antimatter propulsion was possible. As a physicist, he was fascinated by gravity and felt that it was possible to invent the anti-gravity machine. Robert was also interested in the possibilities of time travel and of warping spacetime to cross vast distances through the universe.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• The Washington Post: "Forward has impeccable scientific credentials, and big, original, speculative ideas."

Connections

Robert Forward's wife was Martha Dodson. They had four children: Robert Dodson Forward, Mary Lois Mattlin, Julie Elizabeth Fuller, and Eve Lauren Forward.

Wife:

Martha Dodson

Son:

Robert Dodson Forward

Robert Dodson Forward is an American writer.

Daughter:

Mary Lois Mattlin

Daughter:

Julie Elizabeth Fuller

Daughter:

Eve Laurel Forward

Eve Laurel Forward is an American writer and screenwriter.

colleague:

Joel Davis

Joel Davis is an American writer.

colleague:

Robert P. Hoyt

Robert Hoyt has collaborated with Tethers Unlimited, and Toyobo, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Marshall Space Flight Center.