About Producer Timothy Ferris

Timothy Ferris, the writer and presenter of LIFE BEYOND EARTH, is one of the world's best known and most honored science writers. He is the author of nine books on astronomy, physics, and the history of science, among them the bestsellers The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe(s) Report and Coming of Age in the Milky Way, nominated for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Professor Ferris produced the Voyager phonograph record, an artifact of human civilization containing music, sounds of earth, and encoded photographs launched aboard the Voyager interstellar spacecraft in 1977. He was among the journalists selected as candidates to fly aboard the Space Shuttle in 1986. Among his awards are the American Institute of Physics award, the American Association for the Advancement of Science prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

A former newspaper reporter and editor of Rolling Stone magazine, Ferris is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and other publications. He has taught in five disciplines at four universities, and is currently on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.

Ferris's previous public television documentary, THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE, won widespread critical and scientific praise when it was first broadcast in 1985, and has aired repeatedly on PBS. LIFE BEYOND EARTH is his second production for PBS.

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