Dr David L Clements is a Senior Lecturer in the Physics Department of Imperial College London. He has a degree in physics and a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College. He has worked at Oxford University, The European Southern Observatory Headquarters, near Munich, the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, near Paris, and at Cardiff University. His research is in the broad areas of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology, specialising in studies of dust in galaxies and the role that dusty galaxies play in galaxy formation and evolution. He has worked on the Herschel and Planck missions as Manager of the London Planck Analysis Centre, and head of the Herschel Data Processing and Science Analysis Software Centre London. As an infrared astronomer he has used data from all the major infrared satellite missions, from IRAS to Herschel, and many ground based telescopes. He is the author of over 200 scientific papers and also writes science fiction stories and popular science articles, which have been published in Analog, Nature Futures and Astronomy Now among others. His blog can be found at http://davecl.wordpress.com, which also hosts material associated with this book, and on twitter at @davecl42. This is his first book.