Speaker Profile
Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi-born theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey, where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in the public engagement in science. He is also a prominent author and broadcaster. He has written 14 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages. His latest books include The Joy of Science and The World According to Physics, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Book Prize. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, such as the Bafta nominated Chemistry: a volatile history, and he hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 program, The Life Scientific. He tweets at @jimalkhalili.
Despite his profile as a public scientist, Jim has continued to teach undergraduate physics students in an unbroken run of 29 years. He is a past president of the British Science Association and a recipient of the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday medal and the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. He is a Patron and Vice-President of Humanists UK. He received an OBE in 2007 for ‘services to science’. You can see his TED talk .
For more information about engaging Jim to speak, please email our PUP Speaks team via molly_grote@press.princeton.edu