Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) An American science fiction writer and biochemist, born in Russia and brought to the United States with his family as a child. He studied chemistry at Columbia University and later taught biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine while building a prolific writing career. He is particularly known for his Robot stories, in which he formulated the Three Laws of Robotics and explored the logical and ethical problems arising from relationships between humans and intelligent machines. In "Foundation," mathematician Hari Seldon develops psychohistory, a science capable of predicting the behavior of vast populations, and establishes the Foundation to shorten the age of chaos expected to follow the collapse of the Galactic Empire. Across centuries, the story follows a civilization confronting successive political, religious, economic, and technological crises.
