About the Author
Rudy Díaz was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He graduated with a BS in Physics from Yale University and from there went to California to work in the defense-aerospace industry and attend UCLA. During his 20 years in the industry, his work spanned many of the disciplines comprising modern electromagnetic engineering: from working on lightning protection and electromagnetic compatibility on the Space Shuttle at Rockwell International, through the design of microwave lenses and high temperature broadband radomes at Ford Aerospace, to the design, evaluation, and prototyping of electromagnetic composite materials for stealth applications at Hexcel and Northrop Grumman Corporation, in Phoenix Arizona. Somewhere in the process there was an MS in Physics, a PhD in Electrical Engineering, and the most important part of that journey: Wife Marcy and two wonderful daughters. For the last 20+ years he has been a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University.
What does all this have to do with writing? It’s all about communication. The thrill of research, discovery, and invention that drives me on, was cultivated in me by every person that taught me something in my life. And therefore it is meaningful, only, if I pass it on. This is why I teach. This is why I write.
I have always loved the way stories have the power to transport me to new places, meet new people, and consider things I had never thought of before, all from the comfort of my armchair. (Doesn’t Emily Dickinson have a poem about that?)
If my stories do that for you, for a little while, then I have “passed it on.”
In a letter to his friend Lewis Campbell, James Clerk Maxwell once wrote:
I believe, with the Westminster Divines and their predecessors ad Infinitum that ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.’ That for this end to every man has been given a progressively increasing power of communication with other creatures. That with his powers his susceptibilities increase. That happiness is indissolubly connected with the full exercise of these powers in their intended direction.
If my stories go beyond entertaining, and actually get us to consider important things, at least for a little while, then I have more than passed it on.