Ben Parris

Benjamin Jason Parris (born 1961) is an American writer, educator, and museum planner, known as the novelist of Wade of Aquitaine.

As an educator and technology consultant, he has won national awards. In its August 19, 2005, edition, Long Island Business News placed Parris in the top ten of its Who's Who in Technology list.

Born in New York City, Parris graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. He then did coursework in English from Columbia University in the 1980s; received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Brooklyn College in 1983; graduated from the U.S. Treasury Department's Advanced Business Communications program in 1985; and received a Master of Science degree in computer science from Brooklyn College in 1987, passing a certified public accountant examination in the same year.

After college, Parris became a tax expert and technology consultant in preparation for a career in museum administration.

At the U.S. Department of Treasury, he co-created with Juan Rivera the first procedures and public-contact training program for the Taxpayer Service Division in 1985, originating in the Brooklyn District. This was used as the national model after 1987. Also in 1985 at Treasury, he implemented the pilot program for the nation's first semi-automated telephone information system known as . It is fully automated at this time. In 1990, he wrote the first in-house financial statement software for the accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

As the executive director of the , Parris led the organization, in partnership with and Long Island University, to the in 2002. His methods became the subject of a best-practices seminar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Parris conceived an annual astronomy day at Long Island's (at the former Mitchel Air Force Base in East Garden City, New York) which brought two Sky & Telescope Astronomy Day Awards in 2005: Overall Winner, and Best New Idea for the team of Long Island Museum of Science and Technology, Nassau County Firefighter's Museum and Education Center, and the Cradle of Aviation Museum, preceded by Honorable Mention for a larger team in 2003.

In his program for disadvantaged students at in Hempstead, New York, he devised a method for scaling classic school-science experiments up to real-world engineering budgets and materials. This technique was widely disseminated and became standard practice in several of Long Island's leading schools.

Parris has been an educator for NASA in the Solar System Ambassador program since its inception in 2002, and was periodically engaged by NASA TV to help train its management and consulting scientists and engineers in media exposure.

Parris incorporates his science fiction and fantasy heroes with his own afflictions discovering even greater strengths emerging to compensate for their original limitations. At a young age, Parris battled severe dyscalculia to tackle physics and calculus. Themes also include astral projection, and the multiverse. His work is influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Stephen R. Donaldson, John E. Stith, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

• Wade of Aquitaine ISBN 978-1-9421830-4-4
• Mars Armor ForgedISBN 978-0-9830064-4-2
• Kreindia of AmoriumISBN 978-1-942183-05-1

A one-time columnist for , a publication of Scholastic Corporation, Parris has published a variety of articles and award-winning short stories on music, science, education and business, as well as humor. The most cited of his short works is "The Other Mr. Nedzi".

In addition to a Wade of Aquitaine sequel, he is currently working on a book about fundraising called The Nonprofit Breadwinner.

• benparris.com Ben Parris's official website
• Long Island Museum of Science and Technology
• Astronomical League
• Franklin Institute
• NASA TV
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Ben Parris at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database