Duncan has worked in the Military Industrial Complex for more than seven years. He has designed the next generation of laser guided weapons, launched rockets in Israel, set Arkansas on fire (“It’s not my fault!”), sawed into Mark-90s, blown up cars and houses, and scoured the New Mexican desert for the shrapnel from his tests. Duncan has his master’s degree in Explosives Engineering and has worked for several defense contractors at all stages of weapons systems RDT&E. He currently works in Charlottesville for Battelle doing work “for the government”.

He’s worked at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, at weapon test ranges large and small in New Mexico, Arizona, Minnesota, Arkansas, Utah, Israel and Norway, and at 3 underground coal mines in the middle U.S. that have closed for reasons that he swears are completely unrelated to his employment there.

Iain Banks, Neal Asher, Steven Brust, Peter F. Hamilton can’t write fast enough to keep up with his reading requirements. He is a long-time referee for Women’s Roller Derby, and blogger for Darkcargo.com. He is an avid Player of Games, and has played Dragon Age: Origins so many times that his wife has memorized the script. He gracefully accommodates his wife’s tendency to bring home stray animals.

James Prego, ND is a practicing Naturopathic Doctor for over 6 years on Long Island, NY. He is a board member of the NYANP and the NY rep to the AANP’s House of Delegates. Dr. Prego is a recipient of the NYANP’s Physician of the Year award and has been voted Best Alternative Doctor of 2008 and 2009 by the Long Island Press. He is also an adjunct professor of Biology at Molly College.

Dr. Prego is a long-time fan of science fiction and has been a guest at numerous conventions on the east coast, where he has been on panels discussing xenobiology, health in space, life extension, fusions of biology and technology, and how natural ways of healing fit in a sci-fi/high-tech world. Dr. Prego has also been on various fan-related and culture panels. In his spare time, he is the co-director of Z.E.N., Long Island’s REPO! Shadowcast, in which he also plays the part of GraveRobber. Dr. Prego has given talks, written articles, and been a guest on radio and television shows, discussing naturopathic medicine, children’s health, detoxification, and other health-related topics. To learn more about Dr. Prego, and what naturopathic medicine is, you can visit www.doctorprego.com.

Tedd (“Dr. Rob”) Roberts is a research scientist in the field of neuroscience: the study of the brain and its function. Dr. Rob’s research for the past 25 years has concentrated on how the brain encodes information about the outside world, how that information is represented by the electrical and chemical activity of brain cells, and the means by which that information results in movement and behavior.  Accomplishing these goals has taken him into the various scientific fields of physiology, pharmacology, psychology, electronics, physics, prosthetics, engineering and computer science.

Dr. Rob loves talking about science to anyone that will listen.  Under his professional by-line, he has authored over 75 articles in scientific books and journals and given more than 20 invited lectures.  He is also committed to public science education through work with elementary through high school students, community groups such as the YMCA, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Science Fiction fans and authors, and occasional guest blogs on The Mad Genius Club writers’ blog.

Tedd Roberts is currently working on “The LabRats’ Guide to the Brain” a humorous guide to “getting the science right” for writers.

Ted Bethune is a native of Petersburg, Virginia. He became fascinated with the world of science during his early childhood. At the age of five, he viewed a national news event featuring Mercury astronaut, John Glenn. He recalls that this experience was instrumental in initially stimulating his interests in the field of science. His curiosity and interest in aerospace technology continued to grow through the early education years. This prompted Ted to read numerous books and research documents.
At the age of twelve, Ted’s love for science developed into a hobby as he began a comprehensive slide and video collection. A few years later, he began to present this information on a volunteer basis to public schools, institutions of higher education, civic organizations, libraries, and the community at large.

Ted established Space Science in Petersburg, Virginia in 1984, reflecting thirty years of independent study and accumulation of scientific and historical information on manned and unmanned space programs. As a result of his popularity, the news media became interested. Ted was highlighted in print numerous times and was featured on a local television broadcast in 1996.

The purpose of Space Science is to educate, enlighten, and compel youth and space enthusiasts to develop a greater appreciation and understanding of space technology.

Space Science is the first program of its kind in the United States. The United States Library of Congress copyrights the format.

Laura A. Burns has been a space enthusiast her entire life. She has worked as an engineer with various NASA contractors for over a decade. She worked on the James Webb Space Telescope and the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. During the summer of 2007, she spent 9 weeks in Beijing, China at the International Space University (www.isunet.edu). She regularly attends space conferences and enjoys speaking to the public on space related topics. She tweets about space and science at www.twitter.com/moonrangerlaura. In addition to her interest in space, she is a long time science fiction and fantasy fan, podcast listener, dancer, board game player, knitter, and an avid book collector. In 2011, she had a photo exhibition at Constellation Books in Reisterstown, MD. Laura has contributed to several podcasts and is currently the head of the Parsec Awards Steering Committee.