Bel Arvardan

Bel Arvardan is a fictional character in Pebble in the Sky, a part of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series of stories and novels.

He was born in the year 792 of the Galactic Era (792 G.E.) on the planet Baronn, located in the Sirius sector. At age 23, Arvardan became the youngest person to graduate as Senior Archaeologist at the University of Arcturus. He was also the first person to have his senior dissertation, entitled "On the Antiquity of Artifacts in the Sirius Sector with Considerations of the Application There of to the Radiation Hypothesis of Human Origin," rejected for print by the Journal of the Galactic Archaeological Society.

Later, Arvardan became a senior research associate at the Imperial Archaeological Institute. As a member of the institute, he led an archaeological expedition to Earth in the year 827 G.E. Whilst there, Arvardan helped Joseph Schwartz (himself a temporally displaced Earthman from the year 1949 AD), Affret Shekt, and daughter Pola Shekt discover and foil a plot to destroy the galaxy by Earthling zealots.

As a result of the heroic actions of Bel Arvardan and Joseph Schwartz, the Empire benevolently agreed to revitalize Earth's radioactive ecology in the hopes of one day making it a fully productive world once more, and begins transporting soil to help repair the damaged zones.

Arvardan subsequently became a naturalized citizen of Earth and married Pola Shekt, both volunteering to spend the rest of their lives working to clean up Earth's radioactive wastelands.

In Foundation's Edge, Munn Li Compor tells Golan Trevize that Bel Arvardan is remembered as "a folk-hero on Comporellon". The events of Pebble in the Sky are vaguely recalled as well.