Larry Niven is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. He lives in Chatsworth, California. He and Jerry Pournelle wrote a number of New York Times bestsellers including Inferno, The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall, and Lucifer's Hammer. 

Many of Niven's stories—sometimes called “The Tales of Known Space”—take place in his Known Space universe, in which humanity shares the several habitable star systems nearest to the sun with over a dozen alien species, including the aggressive feline Kzinti and the very intelligent but cowardly Pierson's Puppeteers, which are frequently central characters. The Ringworld series is part of the Tales of Known Space, and Niven has shared the setting with other writers since a 1988 anthology, The Man-Kzin Wars (Baen Books, jointly edited with Jerry Pournelle and Dean Ing). There have been several volumes of short stories and novellas.  

Larry Niven is also known in science fiction fandom for "Niven's Law": There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.