Jim Al-Khalili

Jim Al-Khalili (born 20 September 1962) is a British theoretical nuclear physicist, academic, author and broadcaster. In 2004 he was chosen as one of twenty-one "Faces of UK Science" on permanent exhibition in London’s National Portrait Gallery.. He has recently been awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for science communication for 2007 and elected an Honourary Fellow of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

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. in 1986 and stayed on to pursue a Ph.D. in nuclear reaction theory, which he obtained in 1989. In that year he was awarded a Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) postdoctoral fellowship at University College London. He 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 the structure of neutron halo nuclei (atomic nuclei exhibiting the unusual feature of having one or two loosely bound neutrons orbiting the rest of the nucleus). He has published widely in his field with over 60 papers in leading international peer-reviewed journals.

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. In addition, he also currently holds an EPSRC Senior Media Fellowship. He has lectured widely both in the UK and around the world, particularly for the British Council.

Al-Khalili is a best-selling author of popular science books including Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines (1999, ISBN 0750305606), Nucleus: A Trip into the Heart of Matter (2001, ISBN 0801868602) and Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed (2003, ISBN 1841882380), which have between them been translated into thirteen languages. He was consultant editor on Invisible Worlds: Exploring the Unseen (2004, ISBN 0297843427) and contributor to The Collins Encyclopedia of the Universe (2001, ISBN 0007105851).

As a broadcaster, he appears regularly on television and radio. He is a regular guest on Radio 4's In Our Time, presented by Melvyn Bragg. On television he has contributed to programmes ranging from Tomorrow's World, BBC Four's Mind Games, BBC Horizon and The South Bank Show. In 2004, he co-presented the Channel 4 documentary "The Riddle of Einstein's Brain" , produced by Icon Films.

Beginning on 26 July 2007, he will be presenting on BBC Four television a three-part series, Atom, as part of the season on 'Science You Can't See', on the history of our understanding of the atom and atomic physics.

Al-Khalili is a trustee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and sits on its Council. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and, in 2000, received the Institute's Public Awareness of Physics Award. He is also a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In 2007 he was the recipient of the Michael Faraday prize for science communication. He commented on his website "...I am very pleased indeed. It almost makes up for Leeds United getting relegated - again."

He currently lives in Southsea, Hampshire, with his wife and two children.

External links

• Faculty page at the University of Surrey
• Personal website
• EPSRC profile