Susan Salter Reynolds is a former Los Angeles Times features writer and columnist. For twenty-three years she covered thought leaders (such as Norman Mailer, Bill McKibben, Elie Wiesel, Richard Leakey, Tracy Kidder and hundreds more), cultural trends and controversial issues (from plagiarism to whaling in the North Atlantic) for the Times and continues to write profiles of writers and thinkers for a variety of magazines and newspapers, including The Daily Beast, Newsday, Los Angeles Magazine and others. She has followed the unfolding smart cities story for years and traveled around the world to interview scientists, innovators, business people and government officials in this arena.