Jeff Hecht is a Boston-area free-lance science and technology writer who covers topics from lasers and planetary science to dinosaurs. He writes regularly for magazines including New Scientist, Laser Focus World, Nature, IEEE Spectrum, Sky & Telescope, and Optics & Photonics News. When inspiration strikes, he writes the occasional short fiction. His most recent books are Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon and Understanding Lasers. He has been attending Boskone since the 1970s, and was Science Speaker in 1983. He is a fellow of the Optical Society and a senior member of IEEE and SFWA.