Stu­art Rojs­tacz­er was born in Mil­wau­kee, Wis­con­sin, where he was edu­cat­ed in pub­lic and Ortho­dox Jew­ish schools. For many years, he was a pro­fes­sor of geo­physics at Duke Uni­ver­si­ty. He has been a Kar­ma Foun­da­tion Annu­al Short Sto­ry Final­ist and a Nation­al Sci­ence Foun­da­tion Young Inves­ti­ga­tor. He has writ­ten for The New York Times and Wash­ing­ton Post, and his sci­en­tif­ic research has appeared in both Sci­ence and Nature. He lives with his wife in north­ern California.