Sara Baase

Sara is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at San Diego State University where she has won three Outstanding Faculty awards.

Her textbooks in computer science have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, and Korean. Her newest book is the recent edition of A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing Technology. Her other books and book chapters are about analysis of algorithms, parallel algorithms, and VAX assembly language. She has written several entries on computer-related topics for the Dictionary of Modern Thought.

Dr. Baase earned her doctorate at UC Berkeley and later spent two years there as a Visiting Professor of Computer Science. She earned her B.A., magna cum laude, with honors in mathematics, at New York University. 

She served on the College Board's committee to develop the Advanced Placement program in Computer Science.

Dr. Baase decided to be a teacher when she was in second grade. She has always found teaching, in the classroom and through her books, to be a deeply satisfying profession. Her other interests include hiking, birding, and rare book collecting.

Mailing address

Computer Science Department
San Diego State University
San Diego CA 92182-7720

Phone: (619)-594-6191 (messages)
Email: For email related to the textbook A Gift of Fire, please use GiftOfFire@sdsu.edu

Timothy M. Henry

Tim has a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a master’s degree in computer science from Old Dominion University and was awarded a PhD in applied math sciences from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Henry now serves as IT Graduate Director at the New England Institute of Technology. While at NEIT, he has developed and taught courses in a number of areas including software engineering, game development, operating systems, digital forensics, and cyber-security. In addition to co-authoring A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal and Ethical Issues for Computing Technology with Sara Baase, he has co-authored two data structure textbooks with Frank Carrano, Data Structures and Abstractions with Java and Data Abstractions and Problem Solving in C++: Walls & Mirrors which won the 2016 McGuffey Longevity Award from the Textbook and Academy Authors Association.