Dr. Hope Jahren is a geochemist and geobiologist who currently lives and works in Oslo, Norway. She was born in Minnesota in 1969, a place and date that feature heavily in The Story of More. Jahren earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Minnesota in 1991 and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. Jahren has worked at multiple universities, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, John Hopkins University, the University of Hawaii, and most recently the University of Oslo. Jahren is a highly celebrated scholar, who has received three Fulbright Awards, among many other honors.

Jahren published her first memoir, Lab Girl, in 2016. The book follows Jahren’s upbringing in Minnesota and subsequent career as a woman in science. Lab Girl received many awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. In the memoir, Jahren established her witty, forthright writing style that grabbed the attention of a broad range of readers. Popular Science recognized her as one of the “Brilliant 10” young scientists in the United States in 2005. In 2016, Time named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.