Also wrote as Eric Kotani. Yoji Kondo (近藤 陽次, Kondō Yōji) was a Japanese-born American astrophysicist who also wrote science fiction under the pseudonym Eric Kotani. He edited Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master (1992), and contributed to New Destinies, Vol. VI/Winter 1988—Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Issue (1988), after his friend, writer Robert A. Heinlein, died in 1988. Kondo also edited the non-fiction book Interstellar Travel & Multi-Generational Space Ships, part of the Apogee Books Space Series. Kondo was also an accomplished teacher of Shodokan Aikido and judo. Kondo held a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania, headed the astrophysics laboratory at the Johnson Space Center (formerly, Manned Spacecraft Center) during the Apollo and Skylab Missions, and was the NASA director of a geosynchronous satellite observatory for 15 years, among other roles. He also served as President of the International Astronomical Union's (IAU's) Commission on "Astronomy from Space", as well as President of IAU Commission on "Close Binary Stars" and the IAU Division on "Variable Stars".