Richard H. Smith, MSc., is a futurist, technologist, and science policy expert whose career spans more than 30 years at the forefront of emerging technology and strategic forecasting. He has worked alongside scientists, engineers, Fortune 50 companies, and U.S. and international governments on issues ranging from nanotechnology and artificial intelligence to healthcare innovation and climate change.

Smith has served as a research director at a major university medical center, founded multiple technology companies, and advised organizations on how disruptive technologies reshape societies, markets, and governance. He was formally trained in climate change science by Al Gore and continues to teach courses on sea-level rise and climate futures.

Raised in Virginia, Smith built his professional life while raising a family—an experience that deeply influences the emotional stakes of his fiction. He now resides in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a coastal community already experiencing the effects of rising seas and intensifying storms.

WhiteGrass is Smith’s first full-length novel and represents the culmination of his professional and personal journey. It is paired with a prequel, The Iliad Virus, with a sequel, Icarus Rising, currently in development.

Smith writes with a clear purpose:
to explore the real consequences of climate change, the moral risks of advanced technology, and the uncomfortable truth that saving the world may require confronting who controls it.