Andy Weir
Andy Weir (b. 1972) was born in Davis, California, and grew up in Livermore, California. His father, John Weir, was a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and his mother was an electrical engineer. He was an only child, and his parents divorced when he was 8. Weir grew up reading classic science fiction such as the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. At the age of 15, he began working as a computer programmer for Sandia. (likely via Wikipedia)