* 30 January 1941 - born in Mobile, Alabama
* 1963 - received Bachelor of Science in physics from University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma
* 1965 - received Master of Science from University of California, San Diego
* 1967 - received Doctor of Philosophy from University of California, San Diego
* 1967 - married Joan Abbe
Benford has an identical twin brother, Jim Benford, with whom he has collaborated on science fiction stories and projects. Both got their start in science fiction fandom. Benford was the co-editor of the fanzine Void. His first professional sale was the story "Stand-In", which appeared in the June 1965 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In 1969, he began writing a regular science column for Amazing Stories.
Benford tends to write hard science fiction which incorporates the research he is doing as a practical scientist. He has worked on several collaborations with authors including William Rotsler, David Brin and Gordon Eklund, but has really made a name for him self with the Galactic Center Saga beginning with
In the Ocean Of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
His breakthrough novel may have been the time travel classic
Timescape (1980), co-authored with his brother's wife Hillary Forester Benford, which won the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. A scientific procedural, the novel eventually loaned its title to a line of science fiction published by Pocket Books.
Benford has also served as an editor of numerous alternate history anthologies as well as collections of the Hugo Winners. In the 1990s, he wrote If the Stars Are Gods" (with Gordon Eklund).
He also proposed a corollary to Clarke's third law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced".
