Arthur C. Clarke

Clarke joined the British Interplanetary Society as a teenager in 1934 and in 1945 proposed a satellite communication system using geostationary orbits—a concept that would underpin global telecommunications. His science fiction writing, which earned him Hugo and Nebula awards and a UNESCO Kalinga Prize in 1961, placed him alongside Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov in the genre's "Big Three." The 1968 screenplay he co-wrote for 2001: A Space Odyssey became one of the most influential films ever made. In 1956 he moved to Ceylon to dive, discovered underwater ruins of the ancient Koneswaram Temp…