Who wrote a 1969 techno-thriller novel 'The Andromeda Strain'?

"The Andromeda Strain" is a 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona. "The Andromeda Strain" appeared in the New York Times Best Seller list, establishing Michael Crichton as a genre writer.

The plot begins as a military satellite returns to Earth. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead. The duty officer of the base tasked with retrieving the satellite suspects that it returned with extraterrestrial contamination and recommends activating Wildfire, a protocol for a government-sponsored team intended to contain threats of this nature.