A software engineer who wrote science fiction as a hobby and posted The Martian for free on his website. Readers asked for a Kindle version, he priced it at 99 cents (2011), and it climbed all the way up the bestseller lists and into a Ridley Scott film with Matt Damon (2015).
Born in Davis, California, in 1972. After that first hit came Artemis (2017) and Project Hail Mary (2021), which got its own film in 2026.
His trademark: impossible problems solved with real science, on the page, with jokes. Nerd heaven.