Daniel H. Wilson

Daniel H. Wilson (born March 6, 1978) is a New York Times best selling author, television host and robotics engineer. Wilson is a contributing editor to Popular Mechanics magazine, called the "Resident Roboticist". He currently resides in Portland, Oregon. His books include the award-winning humor titles How to Survive a Robot Uprising, Where's My Jetpack? and How to Build a Robot Army and the bestseller Robopocalypse. His most recent novel, Robogenesis was published in June 2014.

Early life

Daniel H. Wilson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the elder of two children.

Education

Wilson attended Booker T. Washington High School, graduating in 1996. He earned his B.S. in Computer Science at the University of Tulsa in 2000, spending one semester studying philosophy abroad in Melbourne, Australia at the University of Melbourne. He completed an M.S. in Robotics, another M.S. in Machine Learning, and his Ph.D. in Robotics in 2005 at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His thesis work, entitled Assistive Intelligent Environments for Automatic Health Monitoring, focused on providing automatic location and activity monitoring in the home via low-cost sensors such as motion detectors and contact switches. He has worked as a research intern at Microsoft Research, the Xerox PARC, Northrop Grumman, and Intel Research Seattle.

Awards

• How to Survive a Robot Uprising, won a Rave Award from Wired and was chosen by the American Library Association (ALA) as a "2007 Popular Paperback for Young Adults."
• Where's My Jetpack?, was a GQ Media Pick for 2007.
• How to Build a Robot Army, was chosen by the American Library Association (ALA) as a "2009 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers."
• Robopocalypse, was a New York Times bestseller; an LA Times bestseller; a winner of the Alex Awards presented by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); a Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2011; a nominee for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel; and a nominee for the 2012 Endeavor Award.
• Robogenesis, was an LA Times bestseller.
• Wilson was the Guest of Honor at the Capricon 33 science fiction convention, held in Chicago.

Film Adaptations

How to Survive a Robot Uprising

How to Survive A Robot Uprising, published during Wilson's final year of graduate school in late 2005, was optioned by Paramount Pictures. A screenplay was written by Tom Lennon and Ben Garant, and produced by Mike DeLuca. Mike Myers was attached to star;. The sequel to How to Survive a Robot Uprising, called "How to Build a Robot Army", was also optioned by Paramount Pictures. However, the options eventually expired.

In October 2010, How to Survive A Robot Uprising was re-optioned by Steve Pink (writer of the films High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank) and actor Jack Black.

Bro-Jitsu

In August 2007 (before publication), Bro-Jitsu was optioned by Nickelodeon Movies (a subset of Paramount Pictures) and Wilson hired to write the screenplay.

Robopocalypse

In November 2009, Wilson sold his novel Robopocalypse to Doubleday, with Jason Kaufman (editor of Dan Brown, among others) coming on as editor. One day before rights to the novel were purchased, Wilson sold film rights to DreamWorks SKG, with Steven Spielberg officially signing on to direct.

Amped

In November 2010, Wilson sold his novel AMPED to Doubleday, again working with editor Jason Kaufman. Film rights to the novel were sold to Summit Entertainment, with Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow, I, Robot) attached to direct.

The Nostalgist

In 2014, Wilson's short story was adapted into the short film The Nostalgist written and directed by Giacomo Cimini. The short film premièred Jun 19, 2014 at the Palm Springs International Shortfest.

Alpha

In 2014, it was announced that Lionsgate Studios has acquired the distributing rights to Wilson's screenplay for the upcoming sci-fi film Alpha. Anthony Scott Burns is attached to direct, and Brad Pitt is reportedly involved in production as well.

Television Host

Wilson hosted a series on the History Channel entitled The Works, which debuted on July 10, 2008. Ten episodes of The Works aired, in which Wilson explained the hidden workings of everyday items, including Sneakers, Guns, Beer, Garbage, Robots, Skydiving, Power Tools, Steel, Motorcycles, and Tattoos. He has also appeared as himself in Modern Marvels and Countdown to Doomsday.