BIOGRAPHY

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker [1946-]

Rudy Rucker was born on March 22nd, 1946, in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Embry Cobb Rucker, was an Episcopal priest; his mother, Marianne von Bitter, was a housewife. Rucker married in 1967 to a teacher Sylvia Bogsch, and has since had three kids (one of which is named Rudy Jr.).

Rucker attended Swarthmore College and received a B.A. in 1967. He later continued his education at Rutgers University, and received his M.A. in 1969, his Ph.D. in 1973. Currently he is a professor of mathematics and computer science at San Jose State University.

Rucker is said to blend the vulgarity of underground comics with some of the hardest ideas in philosophy and physics --a mix of black comedy, satire, religion, drugs, and metaphysics. His science fiction is often an outlet for his academic works --he considers his novels to be thought experiment to better think through certain questions in mathematics. The non-fiction which he writes endeavors to make this math and science more accessible to the lay reader, thus expressing his will to teach.

He views himself as a "transrealist" (see such novels as White Light) who attempts to reach the deep archtypal truths within science.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFO ON RUCKER'S HOMEPAGE:

http://www.mathcs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker/educ.html