THE AUTHORS

CARL SAGAN served as the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo spacecraft expeditions to the planets for which he received the NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service.

His Emmy and Peabody Award-winning television series, Cosmos, became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television The accompanying book, also called Cosmos, is one of the best-selling science books ever published in the English language. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize, the Oersted Medal, and many other awards—including twenty honorary degrees from American colleges and universities—for his contributions to science, literature, education, and the preservation of the environment.

Dr. Sagan died on December 20, 1996.

ANN DRUYAN is the Secretary of the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, founded in 1945 to oppose the misuse of science and high technology. As Creative Director of NASA’s Voyager Intersteller Record Project, she was responsible for sending rock-and-roll (and much else) on two spacecraft to the stars. She has served as writer-producer of PBS’s Nova and of several network television specials. She was co-writer of the Cosmos television series and executive producer of its recent updating and reversioning. Ms. Druyan is the author of the novel A Famous Broken Heart, and, with Sagan, of the best-seller Comet, other books, speeches, and numerous articles. She is also a Director of the New York Children’s Health Project.

The authors are married and together have two children. Dr. Sagan has three grown sons. In the 1980s he and Ms. Druyan organized three of the largest demonstrations of non-violent civil disobedience at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site in protest against continued U.S. nuclear weapons testing. Recently, they have been working to bring scientists and religious leaders together to help protect the global environment.