Author Guest of Honor: John Scalzi

John Scalzi The carefully human-shaped manifestation of a four-dimensional hyper-intelligent earthworm, John Scalzi translated himself into your plane of existence from the 13th Annelidian Polity Sphere to spread his distinctive brand of philosophical and ethical teachings. But not to you. Humans aren't ready to receive such pungent wisdom. BUT WHEN YOUR EARTHWORM OVERLORDS RISE UP FROM THE SOIL, you will yet understand the smallest fraction of his truth. Oh, yes, you will. His earthy, loamy truth.

When he's not plotting the Great Earthworm Planetary Reclamation, John Scalzi occasionally writes science fiction books, including the multiply Hugo award-nominated Old Man's War series, consults on the Stargate: Universe television series, writes on his blog Whatever, and enjoys pie.

Artist Guest of Honor: John Picacio

John Picacio is a World Fantasy Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated illustrator of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His artwork is noted for its diversity and range, often combining traditional drawing and painting with digital finishes, as well as exploring methods such as hand-made assemblages. His artwork has illustrated the covers of books by Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Dan Simmons, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeffrey Ford, Frederik Pohl, James Tiptree, Jr., Mark Chadbourn, and many more. He has produced cover artwork for franchises such as STAR TREK and the X-MEN. His accolades also include the Locus Award, three Chesley Awards, and two International Horror Guild Awards, all in the Artist category. His illustrations have often been featured in the pages of SPECTRUM: THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY FANTASTIC ART. Nominated five consecutive years for the Hugo in the Best Professional Artist category (2005-2009), he recently illustrated covers for Del Rey’s new editions of Michael Moorcock’s legendary fantasy icon ELRIC. Picacio is currently illustrating a 2011 calendar for George R. R. Martin’s A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. He and his wife Traci live in San Antonio, TX.

Blog: //johnpicacio.com/blog.html
Website: //www.johnpicacio.com/index2.html
Twitter: //twitter.com/JohnPicacio
Facebook: //www.facebook.com/johnpicacio

Fan Guests of Honor: Janice Gelb & Stephen Boucher

Stephen Boucher & Janice Gelb Stephen Boucher atttended his first Australian Natcon in 1982, and since 1990 has usually managed to attend at least a couple of overseas conventions as well as Worldcon every year.

He's been on the con committees of numerous Australian National SF Conventions and was a Board Member and Facilities Division Head at Aussiecon 3 (the Worldcon in 1999). He's also worked on several Worldcons, mostly in the Facilities area. He was the Fan Guest of Honor at Concave 21.

Stephen is a long-standing member of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee. He lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Janice Gelb has wasted many hours on the fannish Internet, participated in numerous APAs, and worked on many conventions, notably running Program Operations at five worldcons, plus serving as Assistant Division Head of Events at ConFrancisco (the 1993 worldcon), and running the Hugo ceremony at LAcon III (the 1996 worldcon).

She was the Fan Guest of Honor at Concave 22 (2001) and BayCon 21 (2003). She was the 1999 DUFF (Down Under Fan Fund) North American representative at the Aussiecon 3 worldcon. She liked the country and its inhabitants so much that in 2005, she moved to Melbourne. In the Real World, she is a senior developmental editor at Sun Microsystems.

photo ©2000 Laurie Mann, used with permission

Special Guest: Bryan Palaszewski

Bryan Palaszewski

Bryan has worked at the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field since 1989 and is currently directing research on high performance propellants and atmospheric entry.

He currently leads work related to human Mars entry, descent, and landing (EDL) where rocket deceleration is planned for the final descent to the planet's surface. He is also investigating outer planet atmospheres and the challenges and benefits of mining them for future space missions.

A recent focus of his research is in nanoparticle metal additives for gelled liquid fuels, and solid hydrogen for atomic propellants.

He recently led the Fire Prevention - Accident Mitigation aspects of the NASA /FAA Aviation Safety Program, investigating ways of making aircraft and their fuels safer.

In 1996, he led the NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) special topic for commercializing safer, denser propellants.

In 1995, he led a team to plan the testing of a 1500 pound thrust Oxygen/Hydrogen windowed rocket engine with laser-based measurements of injector and combustor mixing.

For six years, he led many studies of advanced space systems for orbital and interplanetary travel at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

He was also the lead propulsion subsystem engineer on the Ocean Topography Experiment ( TOPEX) for three years, as well as being involved other flight projects such as the Galileo Mission to Jupiter and the Cassini Mission to Saturn.

He holds a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the City College of New York.

He has received the AIAA Sustained Service Award in 2004, and was chair of the AIAA Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion Technical committee for 3 years.