Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Shawn Lawrence Otto

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Name
  
Shawn Otto

Role
  
Screenwriter


Movies
  
House of Sand and Fog

Books
  
Sins of Our Fathers

Shawn Lawrence Otto httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Similar People
  
Vadim Perelman, Andre Dubus III, Lisa Zeno Churgin, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Michael London

Why not a us presidential debate focused on science shawn lawrence otto tedxmahtomedi


Shawn Lawrence Otto is an American novelist, nonfiction author, filmmaker, political strategist, speaker, science advocate, and screenwriter and co-producer of the movie House of Sand and Fog.

Contents

Shawn lawrence otto nobel conference keynote


Bio

Otto lives on a hobby farm near Marine on St. Croix with his wife, Rebecca Otto, the current Minnesota State Auditor. Their home, called "Breezy," is passive solar, geothermal, wind-powered, and superinsulated. Otto designed it, and the couple built it with their own hands. Otto claims his family forefather, C.D. Gilfillan, founded the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Otto is a past (2009–2011) Board Chair of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

Works

  • Otto is the author of Sins of Our Fathers (ISBN 978-1571311092), a critically acclaimed novel published in 2014 that received a starred review by Publishers Weekly.
  • Otto is the screenwriter and coproducer of House of Sand and Fog which starred Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly and garnered three Academy Award Nominations.
  • Otto's 2011 book Fool Me Twice: Fighting The Assault On Science In America (ISBN 978-1605292175) is published by Rodale Books, and received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.
  • Otto has his own blog, Neorenaissance, and blogs regularly on Huffington Post.
  • Otto's work has been published in Science, Salon.com, Huffington Post, MinnPost.com, Issues in Science & Technology, New Scientist, Scientific American, and other outlets.

    • Science debate

    During the Hollywood writers' strike in 2007 and 2008, Otto co-founded and became the CEO of the Science Debate 2008. Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain participated in the debate.

    Notable public appearances

    Otto delivered the keynote at the 45th annual Nobel Conference, on "Democracy in the Age of Science", and has spoken at the United States National Academies, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) 2010. He has also spoken about science and politics on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation: Science Friday and on television and radio throughout the world.

    Awards and honors

  • Otto's book Fool Me Twice won the 2012 Minnesota Book Award for nonfiction selling in the top 250,000 titles according to Amazon.com
  • Otto was awarded the IEEE-USA's 2009 National Distinguished Public Service Award, their highest honor.
  • His film House of Sand and Fog was nominated for three Academy Awards.
  • Otto's first screenplay, Shining White, won the Heathcote Award, the McKnight Artist Fellowship and the Barry Morrow Fellowship.
  • He is a PEN Center USA Literary Awards finalist in screenwriting for House of Sand and Fog.
  • He is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow for his project Hubble.
  • Otto is a National Merit Scholar, a member of Mensa, a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and an Eagle Scout.

    • References

    Shawn Lawrence Otto Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA