Sheffield served as Chief Scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company that processed remote-sensing satellite data.[5] The association gave rise to many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch (1981) and Man on Earth (1983), both collections of false-colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
Before he died, he was writing a column for the Baen Books web-site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumor that led to his death.[11]
Charles Sheffield attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Double First in Mathematics and Physics. During his studies he met and later married his first wife, Sarah Sanderson, whose death in 1977 became the catalyst for his writing career. They had a son, Charles Christopher ("Kit"), and a daughter, Ann Elizabeth. The family soon after moved to the United States, where Sheffield began working in the field of practical physics, a career that would lead him to a consultancy with NASA and the role of chief scientist at the Earth Satellite Corporation in Washington.[5]
In response to the traumatic grief from the death of his wife Sarah to cancer (in 1977), Sheffield began a second career as a science fiction author,[5] winning both the prestigious Nebula and Hugo awards and serving as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (1984–1986). He maintained two successful careers, consulting for various scientific corporations while earning fame for his hard science fiction. During this period he lived in Washington, DC, and met and married Linda Zall, a fellow scientist, and had two daughters, Elizabeth Rose and Victoria Jane.
At the time of his death, he was married to writer Nancy Kress,[5] and lived with his children in Silver Spring, Maryland.[12]
Fiction
Series
Behrooz Wolf
Sight of Proteus, Ace September 1978; revised, NEL January 1989 – book version of the following linked stories:
"Sight of Proteus", Amazing May 1978
"Legacy", Galaxy June 1977
"The Grooves of Change", reprinted in Amazing Feb. 1979
Proteus Unbound, Analog August 1988 / NEL Jan. 1989 / Ballantine Del Rey March 1989
Volumes 1 and 2 were reprinted in omnibus version Proteus Manifest (SFBC July 1989) and later in a revised omnibus version Proteus Combined (Baen May 1994)
The Heritage Universe
Summertide, Ballantine Del Rey Feb. 1990 – loosely based on
Volumes 1, 2 and 3 were reprinted in omnibus version The Heritage Universe (SFBC October 1992); Volumes 1 and 2 were reprinted in revised omnibus version Convergent Series (Baen October 1998); Volumes 3 and 4 were reprinted in revised omnibus version Transvergence (Baen November 1999)
"Higher Education", Charles Sheffield & Jerry Pournelle, Future Quartet: Earth in the Year 2042: A Four-Part Invention, Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle and Charles Sheffield, AvoNova 1994
"Moment of Inertia", Analog October 1980; read online
"All the Colors of the Vacuum", Analog 2 February 1981
"Manna Hunt", Analog September 1982
"The Hidden Matter of McAndrew", Analog June 1992
"The Invariants of Nature", Analog April 1993
"Rogueworld", F&SF May 1983
"With McAndrew, Out of Focus", Science Fiction Age March 1999
"McAndrew and the Fifth Commandment", Analog September 1999
The Compleat McAndrew was preceded by two earlier versions: The McAndrew Chronicles, (Tor, June 1983) and One Man’s Universe (Tor, December 1993); also, Sheffield later wrote an additional McAndrew story:
"McAndrew and THE LAW", Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Sol System, ed. T. K. F. Weisskopf, Baen June 2004; read online
Waldo Burmeister and Henry Carver, Space Attorneys
Sheffield wrote about this series:
In the late 1970s when I was just starting to write fiction, my young children (young back then, grown-ups now) ordered me to produce stories about every funny or disgusting thing in the world. They made the list for me. It had on it items of comic low appeal to them—sewage, visits to the dentist, mushrooms, fat aunts, opera singers, flatulence (I think they used a different word), comic Germans and Italians, fad diets, pigs, morticians, and head lice. Not an easy assignment, but I did my best. Over the years I have published ten politically incorrect stories tackling one or more of the listed topics... Together they form what I think of as my "sewage" series. They feature my two favourite lawyers, Henry Carver and Waldo Burmeister, and they are depressingly easy to write.[13]
Space Suits (Fox Acre Press, August 2001); a collection of linked stories:
"Marconi, Mattin, Maxwell", Galaxy May 1977; read online
"Dinsdale Dissents", Galaxy July 1977
"The Deimos Plague", Stellar No. 4, ed. Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine 1978; read online
"Perfectly Safe, Nothing to Worry About", Galaxy August 1977
"The Decline of Hyperion", Analog mid-Dec. 1992
"The Dalmatian of Faust", Galaxy September 1978
"A Certain Place in History", Galaxy October 1977
"Parasites Lost", Proteus: Voices for the 80s, ed. Richard S. McEnroe, Ace May 1981
"Fifteen-Love on the Dead Man’s Chest", Amazing May 1993
"With the Knight Male", The Chick is in the Mail, ed. Esther Friesner, Baen October 2000
"Space Opera", Analog mid-December 1988
Erasmus Darwin (Grandfather of Charles Darwin)
The Amazing Dr. Darwin, Baen June 2002 – a collection of linked stories:
"The Devil of Malkirk", F&SF June 1982; read online
"The Heart of Ahura Mazda", AHMM November 1988
"The Phantom of Dunwell Cove", Asimov's August 1995
"The Lambeth Immortal", AHMM June 1979
"The Solborne Vampire", AHMM January 1998
"The Treasure of Odirex", Fantastic July 1978
Appendix: Erasmus Magister: Fact and Fiction, Erasmus Magister, Ace 1982
The Amazing Dr. Darwin was preceded by an earlier version, Erasmus Magister (Ace, June 1982); also, Sheffield later wrote an additional Erasmus Darwin story:
