Physicist, writer, engineer, and artist Randall Munroe is best known for his popular science publications and his webcomic xkcd. He was born in the US in 1984, studied physics at the Christopher Newport University, and worked as a roboticist for NASA. He is committed to engaging people from all walks of life in science and has dedicated himself to demystifying the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and narrowing the divide between scientific institutions and the general population. He applies his expert knowledge, artistic skill, and comedic style to create works in the popular science genre that appeal to a wide and varied audience.

Munroe’s xkcd, subtitled “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,“ has received widespread acclaim from celebrities, scientists, and artists, and has become a mainstay of internet culture. Munroe created the comic in 2005 and began working on it full-time in 2006. The comic is released thrice weekly, and Munroe has already published a collection of the comic strips in the book xkcd: Volume 0. Munroe’s stark and simple drawings are characterized by featureless stick figure characters accompanied by humorous and thought-provoking text.