diff --git a/src/app/author/[author]/AuthorDisplay.tsx b/src/app/author/[author]/AuthorDisplay.tsx
index 1c32ba5..969d340 100644
--- a/src/app/author/[author]/AuthorDisplay.tsx
+++ b/src/app/author/[author]/AuthorDisplay.tsx
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import Link from 'next/link'
 import { Fragment } from 'react'
 import { affiliations, nationalities, authors } from '../../db/data'
 import { Zilla_Slab } from 'next/font/google'
+import { notFound } from 'next/navigation'
 
 const zillaSlab = Zilla_Slab({ subsets: ['latin'], weight: ['500'] })
 
@@ -9,6 +10,10 @@ export default function AuthorDisplay({
   author,
 }: Readonly<{ author: string }>) {
   const data = authors[author]
+  if (!data) {
+    notFound()
+  }
+
   const { name, affiliation, image, nationality, formerAffiliations } = data
 
   const MainPosition = () => {
diff --git a/src/app/db/workers/README b/src/app/db/workers/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d06a52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/db/workers/README
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+These worker files should not be touched unless you know what you are doing! They're simply utilities to be imported
+by the loaders library to launch asynchronous web worker threads.
diff --git a/src/app/utils/search.worker.ts b/src/app/utils/search.worker.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3977e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/utils/search.worker.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+import { documents } from '@/app/db/data'
+import MiniSearch from 'minisearch'
+import { CustomSearchResult } from './searchDocs'
+
+const docs = Object.entries(documents).map(([key, value]) => ({
+  id: key,
+  keywords: value.manifest.keywords.join(' '),
+  abstract: value.abstract,
+  topics: value.manifest.topics.join(' '),
+  authors: value.manifest.authors.join(' '),
+  title: value.manifest.title,
+  manifest: value.manifest,
+  type: value.manifest.type,
+}))
+
+const miniSearch = new MiniSearch({
+  fields: ['abstract', 'keywords', 'topics', 'authors', 'title', 'type'],
+  storeFields: ['key', 'abstract', 'manifest'],
+  searchOptions: {
+    boost: {
+      title: 2,
+      keywords: 2,
+      topics: 1,
+      authors: 2,
+    },
+    fuzzy: 0.2,
+    prefix: true,
+  },
+})
+miniSearch.addAll(docs)
+
+onmessage = (e: MessageEvent<string>) => {
+  postMessage(miniSearch.search(e.data) as CustomSearchResult[])
+}
diff --git a/src/app/utils/searchDocs.ts b/src/app/utils/searchDocs.ts
index bb5d571..7a668e8 100644
--- a/src/app/utils/searchDocs.ts
+++ b/src/app/utils/searchDocs.ts
@@ -1,32 +1,5 @@
-import MiniSearch, { SearchResult } from 'minisearch'
-import { documents, DocumentManifest } from '../db/data'
-
-const docs = Object.entries(documents).map(([key, value]) => ({
-  id: key,
-  keywords: value.manifest.keywords.join(' '),
-  abstract: value.abstract,
-  topics: value.manifest.topics.join(' '),
-  authors: value.manifest.authors.join(' '),
-  title: value.manifest.title,
-  manifest: value.manifest,
-  type: value.manifest.type,
-}))
-
-const miniSearch = new MiniSearch({
-  fields: ['abstract', 'keywords', 'topics', 'authors', 'title', 'type'],
-  storeFields: ['key', 'abstract', 'manifest'],
-  searchOptions: {
-    boost: {
-      title: 2,
-      keywords: 2,
-      topics: 1,
-      authors: 2,
-    },
-    fuzzy: 0.2,
-    prefix: true,
-  },
-})
-miniSearch.addAll(docs)
+import { SearchResult } from 'minisearch'
+import { DocumentManifest } from '../db/data'
 
 export interface CustomSearchResult extends SearchResult {
   manifest: DocumentManifest
@@ -36,6 +9,33 @@ export interface CustomSearchResult extends SearchResult {
 export default function searchDocs(
   query: string,
   limit = 10
-): CustomSearchResult[] {
-  return miniSearch.search(query).slice(0, limit) as CustomSearchResult[]
+): Promise<CustomSearchResult[]> {
+  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+    if (typeof Worker !== 'undefined') {
+      const worker = new Worker(
+        new URL('./search.worker.ts', import.meta.url),
+        { type: 'module' }
+      )
+
+      worker.onmessage = (e: MessageEvent<CustomSearchResult[]>) => {
+        const data = e.data
+        resolve(data.slice(0, limit))
+        worker.terminate()
+      }
+
+      worker.onerror = (error) => {
+        reject(error)
+        worker.terminate()
+      }
+
+      worker.postMessage(query)
+    } else {
+      reject(
+        new Error(
+          `Web Workers are not supported in this environment. Please avoid using a prehistoric browser. 
+          If nothing else seems wrong, this error message is probably showing up due to ghosts in your browser.`
+        )
+      )
+    }
+  })
 }