Sir Arthur C Clarke, the celebrated science-fiction author and futurist, died at 1:30 am this morning in Sri Lanka, at the age of 90. Sri Lanka's internationally renowned citizen had been a resident of the island-nation since 1956. He also held citizenship of his birth country, England.

Clarke was born on 16 December 1917 in the English county of Somerset, to farming parents, and developed a keen interest in science fiction at the age of 12 after reading the March 1930 issue of the US sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories.

Pursuing that interest, he became an early member of the British Interplanetary Society, a group of dreamers who met to discuss ways of putting a man on the moon.

During WW II, he joined the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist. After the war ended, he started his professional career as a science-fiction writer and distinguished himself in this field.

He took a break from his initial foray into writing to graduate in Physics from King's College, an education earlier denied to him due to financial constraints. He resumed writing after his graduation and won several awards for his works, including the famous Hugo and Nebula awards.

In the 1940s, Clarke predicted that man would reach the moon by 2000, an idea some dismissed as nonsense. He is best known for his 1945 prediction of a worldwide communications system involving artificial satellites in orbit around the earth, which led to the development of the satellite industry worth billions of dollars.

Ironically, Clarke himself received a pittance - £15 for the idea, an idea which, if patented, could have earned him a huge fortune. He said, "I did not get a patent because I never thought it will happen in my lifetime."

Instead, he found a mention at a higher plane -  the geostationary orbit at 36,000km above the equator is named the Clarke Orbit or Clarke Belt by the International Astronomical Union.

Despite his visionary status, Clarke had an uneasy relationship with the scientific establishment that saw a bunch of his technical papers published in Playboy magazine.
In 1950, he began writing books. His first efforts were non-fiction, involving descriptions of space flight. 1953 was a turning point, when Clarke received rave reviews for his science fiction novel Childhood's End, and the ensuing financial freedom allowed him to pursue his other passion of undersea exploration, which brought him to Sri Lanka, where he set up a diving school at Hikkaduwa, further south along the coast from Colombo.

An avid scuba diver, he loved the experience, as in his words, it was ''as near I could get to the weightlessness of space.'' Clarke, who suffered from post-polio syndrome and was in later years confined to a wheelchair, lived in an "electronic cottage" from which he communicated with the world using computers and radios.

In 1964 he started his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick's 2001:A Space Odyssey, which was partly based on his short story The Sentinel. It dealt with themes of human evolution, technology and consciousness and has come to be regarded by many as one of the greatest films ever made.

Clarke was named for a knighthood in 1998 in recognition of his status as the grand old man of science fiction, which was help up due to controversies about his personal life. Eventually Arthur C Clarke became Sir Arthur in 2000 when Queen Elizabeth knighted him, although poor health prevented him from travelling to London to receive the honour in person.

On 14 November 2005 Sri Lanka awarded Arthur C. Clarke its highest civilian award, the Sri Lankabhimanya (The Pride of Sri Lanka), for his contributions to science and technology and his commitment to his adopted country.

He had a short-lived marriage of six months in 1953 to Marilyn Torgerson, a American divorcee with a young son, although the marriage wasn't legally dissolved till 1964. He did not have any children. His brother is expected to attend his funeral in Sri Lanka later this week, which, as per his written instructions, would be completely irreligious.

After a varied career as an author, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser, he said in his last public message marking his 90th birthday in December he would like to be recalled mainly as an author.

Along with his illustrious contemporaries Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlen, he comprised the "big three" of science-fiction writing. He especially shared a mutually respectful friendship with Asimov, who said of him, "Nobody has done more in the way of enlightened prediction". Clarke's "extrapolations" for the future predict contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life by 2030, and discovering immortality by 2090.

When Neil Armstrong landed in 1969, the United States said Clarke had "provided the essential intellectual drive that led us to the moon." Clarke's personal memorabilia included a handwritten note from Armstrong with the words, "To Arthur -- who visualised the nuances of lunar flying before I experienced them".