David Toomey

Professor of English, UMass Amherst

David Toomey is a professor of English at UMass-Amherst and co-director of the English Department’s Professional Writing and Technical Communication Program. In addition to his scholarly work, he has written on is a broad range of topics for the general public. Among his numerous books, his Weird Life: the Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Own (W.W. Norton, 2013) was long-listed for the 2014 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, shortlisted for Physics World Book of the Year for 2013, and named an “Editor’s Choice” by the New York Times Sunday Book Review. His book The New Time Travelers: a Journey to the Frontiers of Physics (W.W. Norton, 2007) was among ten nonfiction books named “new and notable” by Scientific American in 2007, and listed among the “Best Sci-Tech Books 2007” by Library Journal.