Jim Akula

A Ph.D. in experimental psychology, Jim Akula spent decades studying blinding disorders of childhood, first as a student and eventually running his own laboratory, before leaving academia. He has authored more than 50 scientific articles and textbook chapters, and untold grant proposals (some of them successful). When he left the ivory tower, he had one firm resolution: No more of those.

Yet a long-ago but never-forgotten immersion in role-playing games, especially the superhero RPG Champions, convinced him that the creativity required for world-building must still be in there somewhere, perhaps seasoned by the lessons learned from working with children facing devastating diagnoses, and the families who rallied around them. The mixture of science, wonder, loss, and resilience forms the foundation of every story he tells.

He lives in Dedham, Massachusetts, with his wife, daughter, and son. And a dog, a cat, a hedgehog, and a turtle.