Popular Science - Cliff Pickover

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Clifford Pickover (19??-)

Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University's Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He graduated first in his class from Franklin and Marshall College, after completing the four-year undergraduate program in three years.

His many books have been translated into French, Greek, Italian, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Polish.

Pickover is also the author of the popular Neoreality science-fiction series in which characters explore strange realities. His puzzle calendars and cards are designed for both children and adults and have sold more than 50,000 copies.

He is currently an associate editor for the scientific journal Computers and Graphics and is an editorial board member for Odyssey, Leonardo, and YLEM. He has been a guest editor for several scientific journals. He is editor of Chaos and Fractals: A Computer Graphical Journey. (Elsevier, 1998), The Pattern Book: Fractals, Art, and Nature (World Scientific, 1995), Visions of the Future: Art, Technology, and Computing in the Next Century (St. Martin's Press, 1993), Future Health (St. Martin's Press, 1995), Fractal Horizons (St. Martin's Press, 1996), and Visualizing Biological Information (World Scientific, 1995), and coeditor of the books Spiral Symmetry (World Scientific, 1992) and Frontiers in Scientific Visualization (Wiley, 1994).

Dr. Pickover's primary interest is finding new ways to continually expand creativity by melding art, science, mathematics, and other seemingly-disparate areas of human endeavor. His Neoreality book series explores the very fabric of reality and religion.

The Los Angeles Times recently wrote, "Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought." Pickover received first prize in the Institute of Physics' "Beauty of Physics Photographic Competition". His computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines, and his research has recently received considerable attention by the press -- including CNN's "Science and Technology Week", The Discovery Channel, Science News, The Washington Post, Wired, and The Christian Science Monitor -- and also in international exhibitions and museums. OMNI magazine recently described him as "Van Leeuwenhoek's twentieth century equivalent". Scientific American several times featured his graphic work, calling it "strange and beautiful, stunningly realistic". Wired magazine wrote, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." Among his many patents, Pickover has received U.S. Patent 5,095,302 for a 3-D computer mouse, 5,564,004 for strange computer icons, and 5,682,486 for black-hole transporter interfaces to computers.

Dr. Pickover is currently a Research Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he has received over 30 invention achievement awards, three research division awards, and four external honor awards. Dr. Pickover is also the Brain-Strain columnist for Odyssey magazine and the puzzle writer for Studyworks, and, for many years, he was the Brain-Boggler columnist for Discover magazine.

Dr. Pickover's hobbies include the practice of Ch'ang-Shih Tai-Chi Ch'uan and Shaolin Kung Fu, tropical fish, (large Amazonian fish), collecting African masks, and piano playing (mostly jazz). He is also a member of The SETI League, a group of signal processing enthusiasts who systematically search the sky for intelligent, extra-terrestrial life. Visit his web site, which has received over a million visits: http://www.pickover.com. He can be reached at P.O. Box 549, Millwood, New York 10546-0549 USA.

Clifford Pickover's books include:

Calculus and Pizza, John Wiley & Sons, 2003
The Mathematics of Oz, Cambridge University Press, 2002
The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars, Princeton University Press, 2002
The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience, St. Martin's Press, 2002
The Stars of Heaven, Oxford University Press, 2001
Mind-Bending Puzzles (calendars & cards), Pomegranate, 2001
Dreaming the Future, Prometheus, 2001
Wonders of Numbers, Oxford University Press, 2000
The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Prometheus, 2000
Cryptorunes: Codes and Secret Writing, Pomegranate, 2000
Surfing Through Hyperspace, Oxford University Press, 1999
Time: A Traveler's Guide, Oxford University Press, 1998
Strange Brains and Genius, Quill, 1999
The Science of Aliens,. Basic Books, 19983
Spider Legs, TOR, 1998 (with Piers Anthony)
The Alien IQ Test, Basic Books, 1997
The Loom of God, Plenum, 1997
Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide, Wiley, 1996
Keys to Infinity, Wiley, 1995
Chaos in Wonderland, St. Martin's Press, 1994
Mazes for the Mind, St. Martin's Press, 1992
Computers and the Imagination, St. Martin's Press, 1991
Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty, St. Martin's Press, 1990

"Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art, and thought." -- Los Angeles Times

"Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." -- Christian Science Monitor

"A shocking, fascinating stroll through an infinite idea zoo." -- WIRED

"Pickover is van Leeuwenhoek's 20th century equivalent." -- OMNI

"A dazzling survey of chaos theory embedded in amusing science fiction." -- The Washington Post

"Run, leap, scurry and scoot to your nearest bookstore and get Pickover's books. Every now and then, a book comes along that reminds us what computers are all about -- not spreadsheets and databases, but expansion of the mind and soul." -- BYTE

"Clifford Pickover is many things -- scientist, scholar, author, editor, and visionary..." -- GAMES

"Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." -- WIRED

"Pickover just seems to exist in more dimensions than the rest of us." -- Ian Stewart, Scientific American

"A perpetual idea machine, Clifford Pickover is one of the most creative, original thinkers in the world today." -- Journal of Recreational Mathematics

"Add two doses of Isaac Asimov, and one dose each of Martin Gardner and Carl Sagan, and you get Clifford Pickover, one of the most entertaining and thought provoking writers of our time." -- Michael Shermer, Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic

"Clifford A. Pickover is the heir apparent to Carl Sagan..." -- Robert J. Sawyer, author of Calculating God

"In recent years, Pickover has taken up the helm once worn by Isaac Asimov as the most compelling popular explainer of cutting-edge scientific ideas." -- In Pittsburgh

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