Jim Al-Khalili

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Jim Al-Khalili

Jim Al-Khalili O.B.E
Born Jameel Sadik Al-Khalili [1]
20 September 1962 (1962-09-20) (age 49)
Baghdad, Iraq
Residence United Kingdom
Citizenship United Kingdom
Fields Physics
Institutions University of Surrey
University College London
Alma mater University of Surrey (Ph.D.)
Doctoral advisor Ronald C. Johnson [1]
Notable awards Michael Faraday Prize (2007)
Kelvin Prize (2011)[2]

Jim Al-Khalili OBE (born 20 September 1962) is an Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. He has hosted several BBC productions about science and is a frequent commentator about science in other British media venues.

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Born in Baghdad in 1962 to an Iraqi father and English mother, Al-Khalili studied physics at the University of Surrey. He graduated with a B.Sc. degree in 1986 and stayed on to pursue a Ph.D. degree in nuclear reaction theory, which he obtained in 1989. In 1989, he was awarded a Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) postdoctoral fellowship at University College London.

[edit] Career in physics

Al-Khalili returned to Surrey in 1991, first as a research assistant then lecturer. In 1994, Al-Khalili was awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Advanced Research Fellowship for five years, during which time he established himself as a leading expert on mathematical models of exotic atomic nuclei. He has published widely in his field.[3]

Al-Khalili is now a professor of physics at the University of Surrey where he also holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. He is a Trustee and Vice President of the British Science Association.[4] He currently holds an EPSRC Senior Media Fellowship.[5]

Al-Khalili was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for science communication for 2007[6] and elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been a Fellow of the Institute of Physics since 2000 when he also received the Institute's Public Awareness of Physics Award. He has lectured widely both in the UK and around the world, particularly for the British Council. He is currently a member of the British Council Science and Engineering Advisory Group, a member of the Royal Society Equality and Diversity Panel, an external examiner for the Open University Department of Physics and Astronomy, a member of the Editorial Board for the open access Journal PMC Physics A, and Associate Editor of Advanced Science Letters. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee for the Cheltenham Science Festival. In 2007, he was a judge on the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[7]

[edit] Science broadcasting

As a broadcaster, Al-Khalili is frequently on television and radio and also writes articles for the British press.[8] In 2004, he co-presented the Channel 4 documentary The Riddle of Einstein's Brain, produced by Icon Films.[9] His big break as a presenter came in 2007 with Atom, a three-part series on BBC Four about the history of our understanding of the atom and atomic physics.[10] This was followed by a special archive edition of BBC Horizon, The Big Bang. In early 2009, he presented the BBC Four three part series Science and Islam about the leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries.[11] He has contributed to programmes ranging from Tomorrow's World, BBC Four's Mind Games, The South Bank Show to BBC One's Bang Goes the Theory. He has recently (as of October 2011) began a programme on famous contemporary scientists on Radio Four, called "The Life Scientific". The first of these series featured his interview with Paul Nurse.[12]

In 2004 Al-Khalili was chosen as one of twenty-one "Faces of UK Science" on permanent exhibition in London's National Portrait Gallery.[13]

In 2010, Al-Khalili presented a new BBC Four, three part series called Chemistry: A Volatile History, on the history of chemistry and which was nominated for a BAFTA award, as well as a documentary on chaos theory called The Secret Life of Chaos. He is also one of several presenters on Genius of Britain, five-part series for Channel 4, shown in 2010, along with Prof. Stephen Hawking, Prof. Richard Dawkins, Sir James Dyson and Sir David Attenborough.

Al-Khalili is a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, presented by Melvyn Bragg.[14] He has been a guest on Start The Week and the Today programme. In April, 2009, he presented a three-part series called The Secret Scientists for the BBC World Service. He was the Desert Island Discs guest on 14 February 2010. He made a brief appearance at the 16 December 2010 evening performance of "Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People" at London's Bloomsbury Theatre.

Al-Khalili also hosts a regular "Jim meets..." interview series at the University of Surrey, which is published on the university's YouTube channel.[15] Guests have included Sir David Attenborough, Lord Robert Winston, Prof. Brian Cox and Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 2011, Al-Khalili hosted a three part documentary series on BBC Four entitled Shock and Awe: The History of Electricity [16]

On the 9th of January, 2012 Al-Khalili presented a Horizon Special on BBC 2 television which examined the latest scientific developments in the quest to discover the Higgs Boson particle, with preliminary results from the Large Hadron Collider experiment at CERN suggesting that the elusive particle does indeed exist.

[edit] Personal life

Al-Khalili lives in Southsea with his wife Julie and two children David and Kate. Al-Khalili has stated that, "as the son of a Protestant Christian mother and a Shia Muslim father, I have nevertheless ended up without a religious bone in my body".[17] Al-Khalili has been a supporter of Leeds United football club since the Revie days of the early seventies.

[edit] Published works

[edit] Author and co-author

Popular science books by Al-Khalili:-

These have, between them, been translated into thirteen languages.

[edit] Editor

  • The Euroschool Lectures on Physics with Exotic Beams, Vol. I (Lecture Notes in Physics) (2004, ISBN 3540223991)
  • The Euroschool Lectures on Physics with Exotic Beams, Vol. II (Lecture Notes in Physics) (2006, ISBN 3540337865)
  • The Euroschool Lectures on Physics with Exotic Beams, Vol. III (Lecture Notes in Physics) (2008, ISBN 3540858385)

[edit] Consultant editor

[edit] Contributor

[edit] Television

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Mathematics Genealogy Project entry, 19th Dec 2011
  2. ^ Kelvin Medal
  3. ^ List of his scientific papers on Google Scholar
  4. ^ Council of the British Science Association
  5. ^ EPSRC profile.
  6. ^ Press release from the Royal Society
  7. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58729. p. 9. 14 June 2008.
  8. ^ http://www.journalisted.com/jim-alkhalili
  9. ^ Current and Past Productions of Icon Films.
  10. ^ Atom for BBC Four announcement.
  11. ^ Science and Islam for BBC Four
  12. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015n3b7#synopsis
  13. ^ Portrait page at the National Portrait Gallery
  14. ^ He has been a guest on the following In Our Time episodes: Rutherford, Higgs Boson, The Graviton, The Physics of Time, The Discovery of Radiation.
  15. ^ The University of Surrey's channel on YouTube
  16. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kjqcv
  17. ^ It's time to herald the Arabic science that prefigured Darwin and Newton, The Guardian 30 January 2008, accessed 19 February 2010.

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