< Back George Hrab Music Musician Best known in his home town of Bethlehem, PA as the longtime drummer for The Philadelphia Funk Authority, George Hrab is also an accomplished guitarist, pianist, and songwriter; having written and released nine albums. His larger works include, “Occasional Songs for the Periodic Table”—a 118-song cycle featuring one tune for each element of the periodic table as well as “The Broad Street Score,” a re-imagining of his most popular compositions arranged for string quartet and voice. His streaming series entitled “Seven Songs with George Hrab,” has him expounding on the theory, history, and trivia of seven songs around a common theme. George is also the sparkling personality behind more than 900 episodes of “The Geologic Podcast.” Ranging in tone from incredibly serious to unbearably silly, his award-winning show features weekly musings about science, music, comedy, and life at large. After nearly two decades of producing the show, he was recently inducted in The Podcast Hall of Fame. Other Socials

< Back David Walton Literary Author David Walton hails from Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife and eight children. An engineer by day and an author by night, David has won both the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novels, which have been translated into seven languages. His newest books are the LIVING MEMORY series, dinosaur thrillers involving paleontologists and an ancient genetic technology. Other Socials

< Back Ruthanna Emrys Literary Author Ruthanna Emrys is the author of the Innsmouth Legacy series, including Winter Tide and Deep Roots, and A Half-Built Garden. She writes radically hopeful short stories about religion and aliens and psycholinguistics. She lives in a mysterious manor house on the outskirts of Washington, DC with her wife and their large, strange family. She creates real versions of imaginary foods in her crowded kitchen, gives unsolicited advice, and occasionally attempts to save the world. https://www.patreon.com/ruthannaemrys Other Socials https://www.ruthannaemrys.com

< Back Sebastien de Castell Author Guest of Honor Sebastien de Castell had just finished a degree in Archaeology when he started work on his first dig. Four hours later he realized how much he actually hated archaeology and left to pursue a very focused career as a musician, ombudsman, interaction designer, fight choreographer, teacher, project manager, actor, and product strategist. His only defense against the charge of unbridled dilettantism is that he genuinely likes doing these things and that, in one way or another, each of these fields plays a role in his writing. He sternly resists the accusation of being a Renaissance Man in the hopes that more people will label him that way. Sebastien’s acclaimed swashbuckling fantasy series, The Greatcoats was shortlisted for the 2014 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy, the Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut, the Prix Imaginales for Best Foreign Work, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His YA fantasy series, Spellslinger, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Both series have been optioned for Film & Television and maybe we will see them onscreen soon. Sebastien lives in Vancouver, Canada with his lovely wife and two belligerent cats. For more information about author, visit his website .

< Back Galen Dara Artist Artist Galen Dara has created art for Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, Fireside Fiction Magazine, Fantasy Flight Games, Subterranean Press, Tyche Books and Strange Horizons. She broke into the industry with an early Hugo Award win for Best Fan Artist in 2013, followed by nominations in 2014, 2017 and 2018 for Best Professional Artist. She won the 2016 World Fantasy award, a 2017 Spectrum Award, a 2017 Chesley Award and and has been nominated for the Locus Award. When Galen is not working on a project you can find her on the edge of the Sonoran Desert, climbing mountains and hanging out with a friendly conglomeration of human and animal companions. She’s on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @galendara. www.galendara.com Other Socials http://www.galendara.com

< Back Silvia Moreno-Garcia Author Guest of Honor HORROR World Fantasy Award Winner Locus Award Winner Hugo nominee 2023, The Daughter of Dr. Moreau Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of… The Seventh Veil of Salome Silver Nitrate The Daughter of Doctor Moreau Mexican Gothic …and many other books For more information about Ms. Moreno-Garcia, please visit her website .

Baltimore Gamer Symphony Orchestra Music Guest of Honor The Baltimore Gamer Symphony Orchestra (BGSO) was founded by Kira Levitzky in 2013 shortly after she graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, after a tenure in the UMD Gamer Symphony Orchestra. The BGSO performs orchestral arrangements of video game music for the enjoyment of the greater Baltimore community. Along with concerts, we have also worked alongside Baltimore City Schools, Gamescape at Artscape, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, and Freefall Baltimore, among others, to provide musical enrichment programs such as instrument petting zoos and more. < Back

< Back Dr. Tom Holtz Science Scientist Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. is Principal Lecturer in Vertebrate Paleontology at the Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on the origin, evolution, adaptations, and behavior of carnivorous dinosaurs, and especially of tyrannosauroids (Tyrannosaurus rex and its kin). He received his Bachelors at Johns Hopkins in 1987 and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1992. He is also a Research Associate of the Department of Paleobiology of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and serves on the Scientific Council of Maryland Academy of Science (which operates the Maryland Science Center (Baltimore, MD)). In addition to his dinosaur research, Holtz has been active in scientific outreach. He has been a consultant on museum exhibits documentaries. He is the author of the award-winning Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages (Random House). Apply now to join our Program Participants! Other Socials

< Back Dr. Inge Heyer Science Astronomer Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, Dr. Inge Heyer completed her secondary education there before accepting a language scholarship to attend Tenri University (Japan). Later she moved to the US to earn an undergraduate degree in Astronomy and Physics, an M.S. in Astronomy, and a Ph.D. in Science Education. Over 20 years as professional astronomer Dr. Heyer worked as senior data analyst at the Space Telescope Science Institute, as deputy press officer for the American Astronomical Society, and as the public information officer at the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawai`i. Dr. Heyer teaches astronomy and physics at Loyola University Maryland. She is co-author of seven books, including the Investigating Astronomy textbook which is used in many astronomy classes. And if you have ever wondered how those beautiful Hubble images got into science fiction series like Babylon-5 and Star Trek, here is the troublemaker who instigated this. Other Socials

< Back Jim Beall Science Engineer Jim Beall (BS-Math, MBA, PE) has been a nuclear engineer for over 50 years and an avid science fiction reader for even longer. His experience began as a naval officer aboard USS Long Beach (CGN-9), then design, construction, inspection, and assessment with a nuclear utility, an architect engineering firm, and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC). USNRC assignments included senior resident inspector and policy assistant for reactors to three different USNRC Commissioners, earning the agency’s Meritorious and Distinguished Service awards. Duties included research into alternative and speculative energy sources, including coal, oil, hydro, geothermal, tidal, solar, wind, fracking, space-based, heavy water reactors, breeder reactors, fusion, and even anti-matter. These studies supported reviewing energy proposals, assessing technical reports, and drafting speeches. JBIS, Elsevier, Baen Books, and the Interstellar Research Group have published several of his non-fiction articles. Other Socials

< Back Martin Wilsey Literary Author Martin Wilsey is a full-time author and creator of the bestselling SOLSTICE 31 SAGA. Mr. Wilsey's first novel, STILL FALLING, was published on March 31st, 2015. Less than three years and over half a million published words later, he retired from his career as a research scientist for a government-funded think tank. As a full-time science fiction writer, Mr. Wilsey still uses his research and whiteboard skills to keep the books flowing. He likes to put science back into science fiction. On his blog, he writes a weekly webcomic and shares his inspirations and views on life. In addition to writing, he has begun to expand his efforts into publishing through Tannhäuser Press, audio narration, and podcasting. Mr. Wilsey has more projects than he has time. Please feel free to email him and distract him even more. He and his wife, Brenda, live in Virginia with their cats, Brandy and Bailey, and his dog, Whiskey. Other Socials