Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was born in Chicago and studied at Harvard Medical School. In 1965, he served as a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and in 1969, he was a visiting professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. All of his novels dominated bestseller lists for a long time and have been published in more than thirty countries. Ten of these have been successfully adapted into films, including "Jurassic Park," which is one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. "Timeline," within just the first two months of its release in November and December 1999, sold one and a half million copies in the United States! Crichton was also a screenwriter and producer of many successful TV series, such as "ER," and directed seven films, including "Coma," "Westworld" (where digital imaging was first used in 1973), and the film adaptation of his own novel "The Great Train Robbery." He also published three scientific studies and his autobiography, "Travels." In 1988, he taught creative writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was honored with an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award for "ER," as well as two Edgar Awards. In 2002, a newly discovered ankylosaurus was named "Crichtonsaurus bohlini" in his honor.