M. Mitchell Waldrop earned a Ph.D. in elementary particle physics at the University of Wisconsin in 1975, and a Master's in journalism at Wisconsin in 1977. From 1977 to 1980 he was a writer and West Coast bureau chief for Chemical and Engineering News. From 1980 to 1991 he served as a senior writer at Science magazine, where he covered physics, space, astronomy, computer science, artificial intelligence, molecular biology, psychology, and neuroscience. He is the author of "Man-Made Minds" (1987), a book about artificial intelligence; and "Complexity" (1992), a book about the Santa Fe Institute and the new sciences of complexity. His new book about the history of computing, "The Dream Machine," will be published by Viking Penguin in August 2001. In his spare time he is an avid cyclist and swimmer. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Amy E. Friedlander, and their dog, Betsy.
