- Joan Slonczewski
Infobox person
name = Joan Lyn Slonczewski
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birth_name =
birth_date = 1956
birth_place =Hyde Park, New York
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residence =Gambier, Ohio
nationality = American
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known_for = Biology
Science Fiction
education =
employer =Kenyon College
occupation =Professor
religion =Quaker
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website = [http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/slonc.htm biology.kenyon.edu/slonc]
footnotes =Joan Lyn Slonczewski (b. 1956,
Hyde Park, New York; raised in Katonah, New York ) is abiologist atKenyon College and afeminist science fiction writer .Biography
Slonczewski earned an A.B. in biology,
magna cum laude , fromBryn Mawr College in 1977. She completed a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry fromYale University in 1982 and post-doctoral work at theUniversity of Pennsylvania studying calcum flux in leukocyte chemotaxis. She visited atPrinceton University and theUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore , before accepting a position atKenyon College . Slonczewski's research focuses on thepH (environmental) stress response in "Escherichia coli ", usinggenetic techniques.citation |title=Curriculum Vitae |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |url=http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/jls-cv.htm |publisher=Kenyon University |accessdate=2007-12-08 ]Slonczewski teaches both
biology andscience fiction courses. From 1996 through 2008, she has been awardedHoward Hughes Medical Institute funding for undergraduate biological sciences education, which she uses to improve science instruction and to foster summer science fellowships for minority and first-generation students.Slonczewski is also a member of the Quakers and Quakerism is featured in many of her novels.citation |title=Quaker Ethos as Science Praxis in Joan Slonczewski's A Door Into Ocean |first=Edward F. |last=Higgins |periodical=Paper Presented at the International Science Fiction Conference |date=
October 18 ,2001 |accessdate=2007-12-08 ]Fiction
Her 1986
Campbell Award -winning novel "A Door Into Ocean " shows her command of genetics and ecological science, as well as her commitment topacifism andfeminism . It depicts theecosystem of a planet covered entirely by water, inhabited by an exclusively female race of genetic engineers. "Daughters of Elysium" (1993), "The Children Star" (1998), and "Brain Plague" (2000) are loose sequels.A serialization of her "The Children Star" (1998) appeared in "
Analog Science Fiction and Fact ", a magazine known for hard science fiction.Her most recent book, "Brain Plague" (2000) depicts a world where intelligent
microbe s inhabit human brains. The microbial aliens have potential for great good as well as great evil. They evolve in the same way as pathogens such as theAIDS virus or assymbiont s such as our digestive bacteria, which help keep humans healthy. "Brain Plague" tells of a future in which genetic engineering, combined withnanotechnology can do everything from shaping our bodies to growing enormous buildings for us.Novels
* "
Still Forms on Foxfield " (1980) 1988 reprint ISBN 0380753286
* "A Door Into Ocean " (1986) ISBN 0877957630
* "The Wall Around Eden " (1989) ISBN 1557100306
* "Daughter of Elysium " (1993) ISBN 0380972220
* "The Children Star " (1998) ISBN 0312867166
* "Brain Plague " (2000) ISBN 0312867182cience Publications
* J. L. Slonczewski and John W. Foster, 2006, "Microbiology: An Evolving Science", a core microbiology textbook for undergraduate science majors, W. W. Norton & Co., New York. ISBN 0393978575
Awards
* Robert Tomsich Award, for outstanding achievement in research in science,
Kenyon College , 2001.
* Silver Medalist, National Professor of the Year program, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Washington DC, 1989.
* John Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, "A Door into Ocean", 1987.References
External links
* [http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/slonc.htm Joan Slonczewski site]
* [http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/adoor_art/adoor_study.htm Illustrated guide to "A Door into Ocean"]
* [http://jb.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/183/21/6466 Joan Slonczewski paper on Bacteriology]
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