A last Balticon-related post: Goeffrey Landis attended Balticon as the recipient of this year’s Robert A. Heinlein award.
Dr. Landis was around for the entire con, and I had the great pleasure of attending a few sessions he sat in on, as well as a kaffeeklatsch Monday morning as the convention was winding down. Of the sessions, the one that really stood out for me was ‘Don’t Forget the Can Opener’, an improvisational ‘what if’ session on what you’d prepare and pack to take along on a multigenerational starship. The panelists were all SF writers, and included, besides Geoffrey Landis, Ian Strock, Mellisa Scott, Amy Kaplan, and Mr. Landis’ wife Mary Turzillo. What made the session fun was watching the panelists’ ideas spark ideas in the other panelists and the audience. I can see where writing collaborations start…
The kaffeeklatsch was a smaller and more informal affair, where Dr. Landis took questions with grace. I Most of the questions were science rather than SF related, which is fair enough, since besides winning the Nebula, two Hugos, a Locus, and two Rhysling Awards for his poetry, he’s also a NASA scientist with degrees in physics and electrical engineering, a PhD in solid state physics, and with patents and over 300 publications to his credit. He’s worked on Mars missions (prompting Joe Haldeman to remark that Landis is the only SF writer to have actually been to Mars), solar energy, solar sail propulsion, and is currently working on technology to allow a vehicle to land, survive, and perform experiments on Venus.
Geoffrey Landis is the kind of hero Heinlein would admire: a scientist and an engineer, at home in theory and practice, widely read and expert in many fields, and also a poet and philosopher. RAH would certainly nod in approval at Dr. Landis’ selection. I’m glad to have been able to spend a few hours in his company.