Robert J. Sawyer — called "the dean of Canadian science fiction" by The Ottawa Citizen and "just about the best science-fiction writer out there these days" by The Denver Rocky Mountain News — is one of only seven writers in history to win all three of the science-fiction field's top honors for best novel of the year:   the World Science Fiction Society's Hugo Award, which he won in 2003 for his novel Hominids;   the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award, which he won in 1996 for his novel The Terminal Experiment;   and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, which he won in 2006 for his novel Mindscan.   Rob is also the only writer in history to win the top SF awards in the United States, Japan, France, and Spain.   In addition, he's won an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada as well as nine Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards ("Auroras").   Maclean's: Canada's Weekly Newsmagazine says, "By any reckoning, Sawyer is among the most successful Canadian authors ever," and Barnes and Noble calls him "the leader of SF's next-generation pack."

Rob's novels are top-ten national mainstream bestsellers in Canada, appearing on the Globe and Mail and Maclean's bestsellers' lists, and they've hit #1 on the bestsellers' list published by Locus, the U.S. trade journal of the SF field.   His seventeen novels include Frameshift, Factoring Humanity, Flashforward, Calculating God, and the popular "Neanderthal Parallax" trilogy consisting of Hominids, Humans, and Hybrids.   (See his Bibliography)

He's often seen on TV, including such program as Rivera Live with Geraldo Rivera, Canada A.M., and Saturday Night at the Movies, and he's a frequent science commentator for Discovery Channel Canada, CBC Newsworld, and CBC Radio.   He has been the subject of an hour-long Canadian TV documentary ("In the Mind of Robert J. Sawyer"), profiled for an entire half-hour episode of "Credo," and twice been "in the hot seat" on Vision TV's "Test of Faith" with Valerie Pringle.

Rob has taught writing at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, Humber College, the National University of Ireland, and the Banff Centre.   He has been Writer-in-Residence at the Richmond Hill (Ontario) Public Library, the Kitchener (Ontario) Public Library, the Toronto Public Library's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, and at the Odyssey Workshop. And he edits Robert J. Sawyer Books, the science-fiction imprint of Calgary's Red Deer Press

Rob has previously spoken at such venues as the Library of Congress, the National Library of Canada, and the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, and he has given keynotes at many professional-association annual meetings, including the Council on Licensure, Enforcement, and Regulation; BioMedex; the Canadian Association of Science Centres; Professional Engineers Ontario; the Federation of State Medical Boards; and the Intenational Symposium on Physical Sciences in Space.

Rob was the only writer invited to sit on the Canadian Federal Department of Justice’s advisory panel for genetics laws.   His consulting clients have included Kodak, Motorola, and Computer Associates, and his 17 bestselling novels are widely taught by English, science, and philosophy departments at many universities including Johns Hopkins.

His nonfiction has appeared in Archaeology, Sky & Telescope, Canadian Business, The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Report on Business Magazine, , and The Toronto Star, and one of his stories was published in Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science.

Rob Sawyer was born in Ottawa in 1960, and now lives just west of Toronto with his wife, poet Carolyn Clink.

Before you, the reader, start to ask what Robert J. Sawyer has to do with our theme of archaeology or paleontology in science fiction - check out the fact that the Quintaglio series deals with sentient dinosaurs and the Neanderthal Parallax series has to do, surprise, with Neanderthals.

For more information, visit his website at http://www.sfwriter.com.