{"id":23393,"date":"2023-05-12T09:33:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T08:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=23393"},"modified":"2023-05-12T09:33:24","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T08:33:24","slug":"leading-science-fiction-writer-receives-honorary-doctorate-from-the-ou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/honorary-graduate\/leading-science-fiction-writer-receives-honorary-doctorate-from-the-ou\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading science-fiction writer receives Honorary Doctorate from the OU"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Britain\u2019s leading science-fiction writers Dr Stephen Baxter has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by The Open University.<\/p>\n

The Liverpool-born writer has captivated generations of science-fiction fans and has worked with esteemed writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Alastair Reynolds and OU honorary graduate Terry Pratchett.<\/p>\n

He originally read mathematics at Cambridge University and later qualified as a chartered engineer through a doctorate in engineering from the University of Southampton and gained an MBA from Henley Management College, now Henley Business School.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dr Stephen Baxter<\/p><\/div>\n

He taught mathematics and physics, and then worked in information technology, while beginning his career as an author. His first short story was published in 1986 followed by his first novel \u2018Raft\u2019 in 1991.<\/p>\n

International success<\/h2>\n

International success came in the mid-1990s with the publication of \u2018The Time Ships\u2019, an authorised sequel to \u2018The Time Machine\u2019 by H. G. Wells, timed to coincide with that novel\u2019s centenary.<\/p>\n

It won multiple awards in Britain and overseas, including the prestigious Philip K. Dick award, the American science-fiction award given annually.<\/p>\n

He is well known for his collaborations with other authors and has worked with Arthur C. Clarke on the trilogy \u2018A Time Odyssey\u2019; more recently with Alastair Reynolds on \u2018The Medusa Chronicles\u2019; \u2018The Long Earth\u2019 series with Terry Pratchett and he is now a vice president of the H.G. Wells Society.<\/p>\n

Beagle 2 – mission to Mars<\/h2>\n

In a connection with The Open University, he reassured the late Professor Colin Pillinger that the name \u2018Beagle 2\u2019 would be appropriate for the pioneering Mars mission that flew in 2003.<\/p>\n

On receiving the award for his extraordinary contribution to science-fiction writing, Dr Baxter said it was \u201ca great honour\u201d and told how he became captivated by science fiction as a 12-year-old when he picked up a book in his school\u2019s library.<\/p>\n

He read a short passage from \u2018The City and the Stars\u2019 by Arthur C. Clarke and confessed that it \u201cknocked me out\u201d and inspired him to look into STEM subjects and, ultimately, science fiction.<\/p>\n

He said of the book:<\/p>\n

\u201cEven then I understood that this isn\u2019t fantasy, it\u2019s a projection into the future; you\u2019ve got a hint of geology and climate change in there; this is a future that isn\u2019t just made up. It\u2019s connected to the present. A possible future, at least.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Britain\u2019s leading science-fiction writers Dr Stephen Baxter has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by The Open University. The Liverpool-born writer has captivated generations of science-fiction fans and has worked with esteemed writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Alastair Reynolds and OU honorary graduate Terry Pratchett. He originally read mathematics at Cambridge University and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":23394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[861,1093,1525,1640],"class_list":["post-23393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-honorary-graduate","tag-faculty-of-stem","tag-honorary-doctorate","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}