Robert A. Metzger (born 1956) is an American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and

science fiction author This is a list of notable science-fiction authors, in alphabetical order: A *Dafydd ab Hugh (born 1960) * Alexander Abasheli (1884–1954) *Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) *Kōbō Abe (1924–1993) * Robert Abernathy (1924–1990) *Dan ...

. He was a

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of pr ...

finalist in the novel category in 2002 for his second novel, '' Picoverse''. Metzger began writing science fiction stories as a child, but it was not until 1987 that he sold his first science fiction short story. He published his first novel, '' Quad World'', in 1991. It was not until 2002 that he published '' Picoverse''; he published his third and most recent novel, ''

Cusp A cusp is the most pointed end of a curve. It often refers to cusp (anatomy), a pointed structure on a tooth. Cusp or CUSP may also refer to: Mathematics * Cusp (singularity), a singular point of a curve * Cusp catastrophe, a branch of bifu ...

'', in 2005. Metzger's works are widely considered hard science fiction.

Greg Bear Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American science fiction writer. His work covered themes of Interstellar_war, galactic conflict (''The Forge of God, Forge of God'' books), parallel universes (''The Way (Greg Bear ...

called him "one of our most ambitious writers of high-tech, hard physics science fiction." Metzger holds a B.S., an M.S., and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. He is co-founder of the technical journal ''

Compound Semiconductor Semiconductor materials are nominally small band gap insulators. The defining property of a semiconductor material is that it can be compromised by doping it with impurities that alter its electronic properties in a controllable way. Because of ...

'', and has authored over a hundred professional research papers. He has also written several articles on science for a popular audience for ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' magazine, and has published speculative studies involving

climate engineering Geoengineering (also known as climate engineering or climate intervention) is the deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth’s climate system intended to counteract human-caused climate change. The term commonly encompasses two broad cate ...

and space propulsion, co-authored with fellow scientist/science fiction novelists

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason ...

and

Geoffrey Landis Geoffrey Alan Landis (; born May 28, 1955) is an American aerospace engineer and author, working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on planetary exploration, interstellar propulsion, solar power and photovoltaics. He h ...

, respectively. Metzger is also active with the

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. Whi ...

(SFWA). Metzger is currently the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Kyma Technologies in

Raleigh, NC Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

. He works in the areas of equipment development and crystal growth of

GaN The word Gan or the initials GAN may refer to: Places * Gan, a component of Hebrew placenames literally meaning "garden" China * Gan River (Jiangxi) * Gan River (Inner Mongolia), * Gan County, in Jiangxi province * Gansu, abbreviated '' ...

and

AlN Aln, ALN, or AlN may refer to: Organizations Paramilitary * Ação Libertadora Nacional, a Brazilian Marxist–Leninist guerrilla movement * Armée de Libération Nationale, the armed wing of the nationalist National Liberation Front of Alge ...

alloys by

hydride vapour phase epitaxy Hydride vapour-phase epitaxy (HVPE) is an epitaxial growth technique often employed to produce semiconductors such as GaN, GaAs, InP and their related compounds, in which hydrogen chloride is reacted at elevated temperature with the group-III me ...

(HVPE) and

Physical Vapor Deposition Physical vapor deposition (PVD), sometimes called physical vapor transport (PVT), describes a variety of vacuum deposition methods which can be used to produce thin films and coatings on substrates including metals, ceramics, glass, and polym ...

(PVD), as well as the development of

photoconductive Photoconductivity is an optical and electrical phenomenon in which a material becomes more electrically conductive due to the absorption of electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared light, or gamma radiation. W ...

semiconductor switches (PCSS) used for

pulsed power Pulsed power is the science and technology of accumulating energy over a relatively long period of time and releasing it instantly, thus increasing the instantaneous power. They can be used in some applications such as food processing, water treatme ...

applications, generation of high power microwaves (HPM) and

electromagnetic pulses An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also referred to as a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. The origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic field, as an ...

(EMP).

Works

* ''

'' (Science Fiction). Published by Ace, 2005. . * '' Picoverse'' (Science Fiction). Published by Ace, 2002. . * '' Quad World'' (Science Fiction). Published by New American Library, 1991. .

External links

2002 Nebula Award finalists
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Metzger, Robert 1956 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American science fiction writers University of California, Los Angeles alumni American electrical engineers American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Pulsed power researchers