Glen David Brin (born October 6 1950) is a well known American author of science fiction. He is the winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He lives in Southern California, has a Ph.D. in astrophysics, and has been both a NASA consultant and a physics professor.
His Uplift series and trilogy are well recognised and deal with the concept of a huge galactic civilization responsible for "uplifting" all known intelligent forms of oxygen breathing life. Humanity within the context of these novels represents an anomaly since there is no known "patron" species responsible for their uplift and hence they lack a basic understanding and appreciation of the subtleties of galactic culture.
The Uplift Series