Joan Slonczewski

{{Infobox person

| name = Joan Lyn Slonczewski

| image = Joan Slonczewski (cropped).jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Slonczewski in 2022

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|8|14}}

| birth_place = Hyde Park, New York, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| resting_place =

| resting_place_coordinates =

| other_names =

| known_for = A Door into Ocean

| education = Bryn Mawr College (AB)
Yale University (PhD)
University of Pennsylvania

| employer = Kenyon College

| occupation = Microbiology professor
Science fiction author

| spouse =

| partner =

| children =

| parents =

| relatives =

| signature =

| website = [http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/slonc.htm Homepage]

| footnotes =

}}

Joan Lyn Slonczewski (born August 14, 1956){{cite web |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/slonczewski_joan

|title=Slonczewski, Joan |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |date=12 September 2022 |access-date=2 November 2023}} is an American microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer who explores biology and space travel. Her books have twice earned the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel: A Door into Ocean (1987) and The Highest Frontier (2011). With John W. Foster and Erik Zinser, she coauthors the textbook, Microbiology: An Evolving Science (W. W. Norton) now in its fifth edition.

Biography

Slonczewski was born in August 14, 1956 at Hyde Park, New York and raised in Katonah, New York.

She earned an A.B. in biology, magna cum laude, from Bryn Mawr College in 1977. Slonczewski completed a PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1982 and post-doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania studying calcium flux in leukocyte chemotaxis. Since 1984 she has taught at Kenyon College, taking sabbatical leaves at Princeton University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Slonczewski's research focuses on the pH (environmental) stress response in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis using genetic techniques.{{citation |title=Curriculum Vitae |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |url=http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/jls-cv.htm |publisher=Kenyon University |accessdate=2015-06-15}}

Slonczewski teaches both biology and science fiction courses. From 1996 through 2008, she has been awarded Howard Hughes Medical Institute funding for undergraduate biological sciences education, which she has used to improve science instruction and to foster summer science fellowships for minority and first-generation students.

Dr. Slonczewski was the Hal Clement Science Speaker in February 2011 at the Boskone 48 convention.

Slonczewski is also a member of the Quakers and Quakerism is featured in many of her novels.{{citation |title=Quaker Ethos as Science Praxis in Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean |first=Edward F. |last=Higgins |periodical=Paper Presented at the International Science Fiction Conference |date=October 18, 2001 }}

Fiction

Slonczewski's 1986 Campbell Award-winning novel A Door into Ocean shows her command of genetics and ecological science, as well as commitment to pacifism and feminism. It depicts the ecosystem of a planet covered entirely by water, inhabited by an exclusively female race of genetic engineers. Daughters of Elysium (1993), The Children Star (1998), and Brain Plague (2000) are loose sequels.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

A serialization of Slonczewski's The Children Star (1998) appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, a magazine known for hard science fiction.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Brain Plague (2000) depicts a world where intelligent microbes inhabit human brains. The microbial aliens have potential for great good as well as great evil. They evolve in the same way as pathogens such as HIV or as symbionts such as our digestive bacteria, which help keep humans healthy. Brain Plague tells of a future in which genetic engineering, combined with nanotechnology, can do everything from shaping our bodies to growing enormous buildings for us. In an interview on their writing, Slonczewski related: "One time in class, my students were discussing my book Brain Plague. I asked the class, 'Is this book liberal or conservative?' A student said, 'It's conservative, because all the characters are married.' Another student jumped up, 'It is not conservative!' Half the book's marriages are gay – with a few robots included."[http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2014/03/joan-slonczewski-field-of-discovery/ Joan Slonczewski: Field of Discovery], Interview at Locus, March 2014

The Highest Frontier (2011) is a coming of age story about the first year in college of Jennifer Ramos Kennedy, a member of the ongoing Kennedy political dynasty. The year is 2108 and Jenny is attending Frontera College, which is located in a space habitation. The earth is being destroyed by human-made ecological catastrophes blamed on the "ultraphytes," UV-photosynthetic plant-animals from outer space. Some political factions are promoting space habitats as a solution, but the spacehabs can only accommodate a tiny percentage of the human population. The political system is grid locked. The Highest Frontier addresses political, social, and environmental issues.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Awards

Robert Tomsich Award, for outstanding achievement in research in science, Kenyon College, 2001.
Silver Medalist, National Professor of the Year program, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Washington DC, 1989.
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, A Door into Ocean, 1987.
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, The Highest Frontier, 2012.

Bibliography

=Novels=

{{Cite book |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |author-mask=2 |title=Still Forms on Foxfield |publisher=Tor Books |year=1980 |isbn=9780380753284}}
{{Cite book |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |author-mask=2 |title=A Door into Ocean |publisher=Tor Books |year=1986 |isbn=9780877957638}}
{{Cite book |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |author-mask=2 |title=The Wall Around Eden |publisher=Tor Books |year=1989 |isbn=9781557100306}}
{{Cite book |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |author-mask=2 |title=Daughter of Elysium |publisher=Tor Books |year=1993 |isbn=9780380972227}}
{{Cite book |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |author-mask=2 |title=The Children Star |publisher=Tor Books |year=1998 |isbn=9780312867164}}
{{Cite book |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |author-mask=2 |title=Brain Plague |publisher=Tor Books |year=2000 |isbn=9780312867188}}
{{Cite book |last=Slonczewski |first=Joan |author-mask=2 |title=The Highest Frontier |publisher=Tor Books |year=2011 |isbn=9780765329561}}

=Science publications=

J. L. Slonczewski, John W. Foster and Erik Zinser, 2020, Microbiology: An Evolving Science 5E, a core microbiology textbook for undergraduate science majors, W. W. Norton & Co., New York. {{ISBN|0-393-97857-5}}

References

External links

[http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/slonc.htm Joan Slonczewski site]
[http://ultraphyte.com Ultraphyte] author blog
[http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/adoor_art/adoor_study.htm Illustrated guide to A Door into Ocean]
[http://jb.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/183/21/6466 Joan Slonczewski paper on Bacteriology]
[http://sciencefiction.oru.edu Joan Slonczewski selected as Keynote Speaker for Science and Science Fiction Conference]
{{isfdb name|id=Joan_Slonczewski|name=Joan Slonczewski}}
[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/slonczewski_interview Making Strange Stuff Familiar: A Conversation with Joan Slonczewski] (interview) at Clarkesworld Magazine, 10/2011
[http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2014/03/joan-slonczewski-field-of-discovery/ Joan Slonczewski: Field of Discovery], Interview at Locus magazine, March 2014