Jim al-Khalili
Professor Jim al-Khalili OBE is a physicist and award-winning science communicator. He will be presenting a new weekly science programme on Radio 4 starting in the autumn of 2011.
He is a leading theoretical physicist based at the University of Surrey, where he holds a personal chair in physics and the first University of Surrey chair in the public engagement in science; he is also vice president and trustee of the British Science Association. He has written a number of popular science books, translated so far into 13 languages, with his most recent being Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science.
He has also presented a number of television and radio documentaries including the BAFTA nominated Chemistry: A Volatile History and The Secret Life of Chaos (winner of Best Film Award at the 2010 International Science Films Festival in Athens).
He is a senior advisor to the British Council on science and technology, a member of the Royal Society's Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel and a member of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s Societal Issues Panel. In 2008, he became the youngest ever recipient of the Royal Society's Michael Faraday prize for science communication.
