About the Author

The late John L. Tishman was Chairman Emeritus of Tishman Realty and Construction. His strategic management plan was based on broad diversification within the real estate and construction markets, joint-venture partnerships, and use and development of advanced technology. Mr. Tishman was personally in charge of such landmark projects as the World Trade Center in New York, the renovation of Carnegie Hall, the John Hancock Center in Chicago, the Century Club Theme Center in Los Angeles, and the Walt Disney Company's Epcot Center in Orlando. He was Trustee of Carnegie Hall and Trustee of New School University and served on the boards of Carnegie Hall and the Central Park Conservancy. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan College of Engineering.

Tom Shachtman has written more than thirty books and many television documentaries. His 1999 book, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, was the basis for a two-hour documentary special for BBC and PBS, broadcast in 2008. It and Tom's script won an American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award for 2009. Shachtman, a long-term member of the Writers Guild of America, has written scripts for documentaries broadcast by ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, syndicators, and local stations. A former executive at the National Geographic Society, he has been a consultant to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and to the New York Zoological Society.