Paul Preuss

After covering science at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for 16 years, delighting in all fields but specializing in physics, nuclear science, accelerators, and photon science, Paul Preuss has returned to his previous pursuits, writing fiction, freelance science articles, reviews, and commentary. As a member of Berkeley Lab's Public Affairs Department from 1997 to 2013, he wrote hundreds of press releases, articles, and other works for Lab and DOE publications. Miscellaneous projects included creating the Lab's nationally recognized, multimedia community information campaign "Did You Ever Wonder?"; editing the online science magazine Science@Berkeley Lab; producing videos including the Lab's award-winning Joy of Discovery, directed by Bob Elfstrom; and representing the Lab as one of the 12 community partners of KQED's multiplatform science series, 'Quest'. Previously he was a full-time writer of fiction, science articles, and criticism. His novels have been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. They include Secret Passages, about quantum theory and the archaeology of Crete; Core, described by the New York Times as "a savvy hard-science techno-thriller"; Broken Symmetries, a New York Times notable book of the year, and, with Arthur C. Clarke, the Venus Prime series, now in its fourth edition. He was a coauthor of the research letter "Possible hard materials based on interpenetrating diamond-like networks," with Davide Proserpio and Roald Hoffmann, which appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. His freelance articles for magazines like Discover examined molecular engineering, biotechnology, theoretical physics, the Carlos Casteneda controversy, Paolo Soleri's architecture, and many other topics. Hundreds of his book reviews and short articles appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. Before he turned to writing he was a freelance documentary film producer, writer, and editor, including Emmy-winning prime-time entertainment specials for CBS, NBC, and ABC. He was a science consultant to Bay Area computer-game designers and filmmakers, including Colossal Pictures and American Zoetrope. He was briefly editor of the Exploratorium Magazine and, before moving to the Bay Area, was the educational media director of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study in Boulder, Colorado. He was creative director and executive production manager of King Screen Productions in Seattle, where he wrote, produced, and directed award-winning documentaries and short films, including "Over, Through, Around" for the premier episode of Sesame Street (which was his first and shortest film - until the advent of YouTube!). In New York, he worked in marketing research for BBDO advertising. He received his BA from Yale University, cum laude, departmental honors with exceptional distinction, and was a Scholar of the House studying the relationship of film and modern drama. He was one of the two first students to produce a film for academic credit at Yale. He also attended the cours de civilisation francaise at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and studied film with Jean Rouch of cinema verite fame. He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the Northern California Science Writers Association.