Marc Kaufman

Marc Kaufman is a science writer and national editor at The Washington Post. To report "First Contact," he spent more than two years traveling the globe to meet and learn from the scientists at the cutting edge of the search for life beyond Earth. The world of ET had not been a major interest of mine over the years (though I certainly am a fan of "2001: A Space Odyssey") but was pulled in during a science-religion fellowship, and had come to see the search as far more than a curiosity. In fact, he came to see the worldwide effort to learn extraterrestrial life as a kind of stealth Apollo program -- massive in scope yet hidden in plain view. As a reporter and editor for more than 30 years, mostly at The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer, Kaufman has been primed to jump on the big story, and that's what he saw in astrobiology.but he believes his years working as a foreign correspondent trained him best to write this book. Why? His task was again to learn and understand new languages and cultures, only this time of a scientific nature. He also needed to find the individuals who might best bring the work and the story to life, and then to translate their research for those without their depth of training and experience. It was the education of a lifetime, and hopefully will be eye-opening and compelling for you.