Janet Opal Jeppson Asimov was born on August 6, 1926. She received a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a medical degree from New York University Medical School. After completing a residency in psychiatry, she continued her education at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychoanalysis, where she accepted a job upon graduating. She was an author, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst. She wrote fiction and nonfiction books including The Second Experiment, The Last Immortal, Mind Transfer, and The Mysterious Cure and Other Stories of Pshrinks Anonymous. She and her husband Isaac Asimov wrote the Norby Chronicles series. She edited a selection of her husband's letters entitled It's Been a Good Life: Isaac Asimov. She also wrote books under the pen name J. O. Jeppson. After her husband's death, she took over writing his science column for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. She died on February 25, 2019 at the age of 92.