Sidney Perkowitz
Sidney Perkowitz is a Brooklyn-born American physicist and science writer. He is the Charles Howard Candler Professor Emeritus of Physics at Emory University, where he studied matter and published more than 100 scientific papers and books. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In 1990, he started focusing on explaining science to non-scientists. He writes popular science books, contributes to magazines and newspapers, appears on TV and radio, and creates museum exhibits and stage works. His books include Empire of Light (1996), Universal Foam (2001), Digital People (2005), Hollywood Science (2007), and Slow Light (2011). These works explore topics from how light works to the everyday uses of foam, and how science is shown in films. Slow Light surveys recent breakthroughs in light, such as slowing and speeding light, teleportation, and invisibility.
Perkowitz has written for major outlets like The Sciences, Technology Review, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, and has appeared on CNN, NPR, and the BBC. He has written stage pieces, including Albert and Isadora, Friedmann’s Balloon, and Glory Enough, and has completed a screenplay. He blogs about science for the National Academy of Sciences.
His books have been well received for making complex ideas approachable and for linking science with culture, technology, and art. They have been translated into six languages and Braille.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:13 (CET).