About Russ
Russ Colson is a scientist, teacher, author, gardener, and grandfather living in northwest Minnesota, far enough from city lights to see the Milky Way and the Aurora Borealis. During the dark northern winters, before retirement, he taught planetary science, meteorology, and geology at Minnesota State University Moorhead. In summers, he wrote, gardened, and collaborated with undergraduate students on research projects in experimental planetary geochemistry. In 2010, he was selected by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation as US Professor of the Year.
Before coming to Minnesota, he worked at the Johnson Space Center in Texas and at Washington University in St. Louis where, among other things, he studied how a lunar colony might mine oxygen from the local rock. In addition to science fiction books and books on Earth Science and gardening, he has published a variety of technical papers, science fiction short stories, and essays on earth science education.
Since retiring from MSUM in August of 2023, Russ has turned more of his attentions to writing, having completed a new SF short story, a new YA SF novel, and two earth-science themed crossword puzzles in the first three months of retirement. He also spent thirty days of those first three months on the road with his wife in their small campervan (to see family, old haunts, and new landscapes and geology!) and continues his interest in gardening and landscaping on their rural property in northwest Minnesota.
