Shawn Carlson

SHAWN CARLSON is an American physicist, science writer, and STEM educator who wrote Scientific American’s "Amateur Scientist" column from 1995 to 2001. His books include Scientific American The Amateur Astronomer and Scientific American The Amateur Biologist.

Carlson received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for science education in 1999. He holds B.S. degrees in Applied Mathematics and Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from UCLA, and served as an adjunct professor in physics at San Diego State University.

When not writing, Carlson founded and leads the Society for Amateur Scientists, an organization he established in 1994 to support public engagement with science.

Shawn lives in San Diego.

Shawn Carlson’s books are published by Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing.

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