Rick Sternbach, FIAAA

Rick Sternbach, FIAAA has been a space and science fiction artist since the early 1970s, often combining both interests in a project. His clients include NASA, Sky and Telescope, Data Products, Random House, Smithsonian, Analog, Astronomy, The Planetary Society, and Time-Life Books. He was Assistant Art Director, Illustrator, and Special Visual Effects Designer, for COSMOS, Carl Sagan Productions. He is a founding member and Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), which was formed in 1981.
 
Rick has written and illustrated articles on orbital transfer vehicles and interstellar flight for Science Digest. Beginning in the late 1970s, he added film and television illustration and special effects to his background, with productions like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Last Starfighter, Future Flight, and Cosmos, for which he and other members of the art team received an Emmy Award, the first for visual effects. He also twice received the coveted Hugo Award for best professional science fiction artist, in 1977 and 1978.
 
With the rebirth of Star Trek, beginning with The Next Generation, he was one of the first employees hired to update the Trek universe. He created new spacecraft, tricorders, phasers, and hundreds of other props and set pieces. Using pencil, pen, and computer, he added Deep Space Nine and Voyager to his spacecraft inventory, and kept his hand in real space design with Voyager’s Ares IV Mars orbiter (blessed by planetary scientist Dr. Bruce Murray).
 
Rick contributed graphic designs for the recent Star Trek Nemesis feature film, including the new Romulan bird of prey and Senate chamber floor. He also provided computer playback graphics and animation elements for Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris, and is now at work on a variety of freelance projects related to spaceflight and space hardware modeling.
 
His spacecraft designed include U.S.S. Voyager, Future Klingon dreadnought (Negh’Var), Deep Space Nine station, Delta Flyer, Danube class runabout, Voyager Shuttlecraft (“Speedboat”), Ares IV Earth-Mars ship, Jupiter Station, Klingon Attack Cruiser, U.S.S. Prometheus, U.S.S. Dauntless, and the Cardassian Galor-class cruiser. His props designed include Starfleet Hand Phaser, PADD Data device, Starfleet Communicator Badge, Starfleet Tricorder, Disruptors, tricorders, PADDs, and communicators for Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Bajoran, Kazon, Ferengi and other races.
 
Rick received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Creative Technical Craft, visual effects for COSMOS: On the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean; 1980–1981 and the Hugo Award, Best Professional Science Fiction Artist 1977 and 1978, World Science Fiction Society.
 
He authored U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints: Star Trek : The Next Generation, and coauthored Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual. Read his 1997 chat, 1998 chat, and 2000 chat on STARTREK.COM! Read his interview on Ex Astris Scientia. Read his interview on TrekWeb.com.