Arthur C. Clarke was born in Somerset in 1917. He was a graduate of King’s College, London (where he obtained a First Class Honours in Physics and Mathematics), a past Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, and a member of the Academy of Astronautics, the Royal Astronomical Society, and many other scientific organisations. He served in the RAF during the Second World War and was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment during its experimental trials. He wrote a monograph for Wireless World in 1945 predicting satellite communications, and did it so well that when the first commercial satellites were launched twenty years later they could not be patented.
He wrote over sixty books, among them the science fiction classics ‘Childhood’s End, The City and the Stars,’ and ‘Rendezvous With Rama’ (which was unique in winning all three major science fiction trophies, the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards). In 1968 he shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for ‘2001, A Space Odyssey’. He became widely known for his nonfiction work with the television series ‘Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World.’
Arthur C. Clarke for many years made his home in Sri Lanka. He was chancellor of a university there and founder of the Arthur C. Clarke Centre for Advanced Technology. He was awarded the CBE in 1989 and was knighted in 1998. He passed away in March 2008.
