home button
site comments contact information Related Links home button
about the rhf button
the inductees
about the jury
James Morris,
Jury Moderator
Minoru Asada
Ron Baillie
Ruzena Bajcsy
Anne Balsamo
Fred Barton
Gordon Bell
Rodney Brooks
Randal Bryant
Henrik Christensen
Anthony Daniels
Joanna Haas
Ray Jarvis
Takeo Kanade
Dan Kara
Don Marinelli
Matt Mason
Illah Nourbakhsh
Raj Reddy
Chuck Thorpe
Sherry Turkle
Manuela Veloso
Daniel H. Wilson
Steve Wozniak
Will Wright
nominate a robot
news and events
 
ABOUT THE JURY : ARTHUR C. CLARKE
 

Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England on December 16, 1917. In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction.

During World War II, as an RAF officer, he was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment, the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental trials. His only non-science-fiction novel, Glide Path, is based on this work.

In 1945, Dr. Clarke published the technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays", which presented the principles of satellite communication from satellites in geostationary orbits. This revolutionary concept was realized 25 years later and brought him numerous honors, such as the 1982 Marconi International Fellowship, a gold medal of the Franklin Institute, the Vikram Sarabhai Professorship of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, the Lindbergh Award and a Fellowship of King's College, London. Today, the geostationary orbit at 42,000 kilometers is named The Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union.

After the war, Dr. Clarke returned to London and to the BIS, over which he presided in 1946-47 and 1950-53. He obtained first class honors in Physics and Mathematics at King's College, London, in 1948.

In 1954, Dr. Clarke wrote to Dr. Harry Wexler, then chief of the Scientific Services Division, U.S. Weather Bureau, about satellite applications for weather forecasting. Of these communications, a new branch of meteorology was born. Dr. Wexler became the driving force for the use of rockets and satellites for meteorological research and operations.

On 26 May 2000, Dr. Clarke was presented the "Award of Knight Bachelor" at a ceremony in Colombo, two years after the title was conferred on him.

Since 1956 Sir Arthur has lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which he first visited in December 1954.

Sir Arthur Clarke is the author of many books and has participated in the production of a variety of films about space. The first story Clarke sold professionally was "Rescue Party", written in March 1945 and appearing in Astounding Science in May 1946. In the book Profiles of the Future (1962) he outlines his Three Laws and looks at the probable shape of tomorrow's world. In 1964, he started to work with Stanley Kubrick on a science fiction movie script. Four years later, he shared an Oscar Academy Award nomination with Mr. Kubrick for the film version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sir Arthur subsequently co-broadcasted the Apollo 12 and 15 missions with Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra for CBS. In 1985, He published a sequel to 2001: 2010: Odyssey Two. He worked with Peter Hyams in the movie version of 2010. Their work was done using a Kaypro computer and a modem, since Sir Arthur was in Sri Lanka and Peter Hyams in Los Angeles. Their communications turned into the book, The Odyssey File - The Making of 2010. His thirteen-part TV series Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World in 1981 and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers in 1984 has now been screened in many countries. He made parts of other TV series about space, such as Walter Cronkite's Universe series in 1981.

Back to the Top

 
 

Copyright Information. Site by Wall-to-Wall Studios. This site is enhanced with Macromedia FlashTM technology. Click here to download the plug-in.