John C. Mannone achieved a PhD [all but the dissertation defense] in Electrical Engineering on expanded space charge theory in dielectric fluids (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 2002), an MS in Physics specializing in plasma physics (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 1988), an MS in Physical & Theoretical Chemistry specializing in photoelectron spectroscopy (Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 1978), and a BS in Chemistry (Loyola University, Baltimore, MD, 1970). His research interests are in astrophysical plasmas and electromagnetic theory.As a research chemist for Martin Marietta Laboratories in Baltimore, he worked on life detection systems on the Viking missions as well as on accelerated aging of electro explosives used on the Voyager missions. He met Carl Sagan there, a visiting lecturer, before he became famous.He served as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador for Tennessee and editor of the Journal of Radio Astronomy for SARA.He has a passion for the literary arts since 2004, and often fuses art with science. Mannone has poems in Windhover, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, Baltimore Review, and others. He won the Dwarf Stars Award (2020); was awarded an HWA Scholarship (2017), and a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature. He served as the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). His full-length collections are Disabled Monsters (Linnet's Wings Press, 2015), Flux Lines (Linnet's Wings Press, 2022), Song of the Mountains (Middle Creek Publishing, 2023, a Weatherford Award nominee), Sacred Flute (Iris Press, 2024, a semifinalist for the 2025 Tennessee Book Award), and Dark Wind, Dark Water, a novella-length horror fiction collection forthcoming from Mind's Eye Publishing (2025). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and Silver Blade. He's a retired professor of physics teaching science, mathematics, and creative writing in East Tennessee whenever he gets the opportunity.
