Jules Verne – “Father of Science Fiction”

Visionary author Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote many famous novels, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

Prof. dr. Rosalind Williams (MIT) explains how Verne invented a new kind of fiction that he called ‘geographic romance’. After his death this kind of story-telling has been popular to this day, especially in the form of science fiction in books, films, and plays. Verne’s stories remind us of the adventurous dimensions of science and engineering. They also reveal a longing for the unknown that is more and more difficult to achieve in geographical reality as the earth is progressively mapped and explored.

Rosalind Williams is Professor of the History of Science and Technology at MIT and received an honorary doctorate  from the TU/e in 2010.