Asimov grew up in Brooklyn, where his parents, Jewish immigrants, ran a candy store. He worked long hours there and first read the pulp science fiction magazines that shaped his ambitions. A precocious student, he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in chemistry in 1939 and earned a PhD in biochemistry there in 1948. During World War II he worked at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and later served in the U.S. Army.
He began publishing science fiction as a teenager and soon became a central figure in the field. His story Nightfall (1941) was celebrated as one of the genre's finest, and the Robot stories collected in I, Robot (1950) introduced the Three Laws of Robotics, a framework that influenced decades of science fiction. In the 1940s he also began the Foundation stories, later gathered as the Foundation trilogy, about a mathematician who uses a fictional science of psychohistory to shorten a coming dark age. After earning his doctorate, Asimov taught biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine, but his writing income allowed him to become a full-time author in 1958.
His output was extraordinary: science fiction novels such as The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Gods Themselves, plus hundreds of popular science books, essays, histories, and annotated works. He won Hugo and Nebula awards and in 1987 was named a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman in 1942; they had two children and divorced in 1973, the same year he married Janet Jeppson. He died in 1992, and his widow later disclosed that his death was connected to an HIV infection contracted during heart surgery.
Isaac Asimov was born on January 2, 1920 in Minsk, Minskaya Voblasts', Belarus. In Cardology (Destiny Cards), January 2, 1920 corresponds to the Queen of Spades, making the Queen of Spades his Birth Card.
In numerology, the name adds another layer to the birth-date profile. The letters of a person’s name are used to explore inner motivation, personality, expression, and the qualities they bring into relationships and everyday life. Explore how his original name Isaac Asimov influences his life and personality.
Isaac Asimov Quotes
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.” - Isaac Asimov
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