- Chris Smith (doctor)
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Dr Chris Smith - "the Naked Scientist" - is a medical doctor and a clinical lecturer in virology at Cambridge University where he is a fellow of Queens' College. He is also a science radio broadcaster and writer, and presents the Naked Scientists on the BBC, a programme which he founded in 2001.
In addition to the Naked Scientists, he appears each Monday morning on BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night programme, and live every Friday morning on Australia's Radio National Breakfast, with an update of the week's science news. He is also a frequent contributor to Robyn Williams' "The Science Show" on the same station, and also appears on Johannesburg-based South African station TalkRadio 702 for thirty minutes every Friday morning with a half hour science news round up and listener phone-in.
Smith also founded and presented the first 100 episodes of the Nature Podcast for the journal Nature. This show was the first example of an international science journal producing an audio programme to supplement its printed content. He has also contributed podcast content for the open access publishing group PLoS (Public Library of Science) and hosts the Royal Society of Chemistry's "Chemistry World" Podcast.
Contents
Naked Scientists Podcast
The Naked Scientists is now one of the world's most downloaded science podcasts. Launched by Smith in 2005, it was also the first example of a BBC local and regional programme to be published as a podcast; within its first twelve months it received 2 million programme downloads.
In January 2010, Smith's The Naked Scientists group announced on Twitter that, just ahead of the 10th anniversary of the project's launch, the number of downloaded programme episodes had hit 10 million internationally. More recently, in a presentation at the 2011 AAAS Meeting in Washington DC, Smith announced that, as of February 2011, over 17 million episodes of the Naked Scientists podcast have been downloaded globally.
Books
In September 2006 Chris Smith published Naked Science, his first book, which is an anthology of science stories based on the material presented on The Naked Scientists. This was followed, in September 2008, by "Crisp Packet Fireworks", a collection of 50 science experiments to try at home using every-day ingredients found in the average kitchen. This title, which was co-authored with Naked Scientist colleague David Ansell and published by New Holland, was initially launched across in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. In January 2010 it was also published across South Africa by Struik and Random House under the title "Maverick Science", and launched in the US in April 2010 as "Spectacular Science".
In December 2008 Chris also published a sequel to "Naked Science", "The Return of the Naked Scientist", with Random House in Australia and New Zealand. He recently released a fourth book, Stripping Down Science, also with Random House Australia, in December 2010.
Awards
His work on the Naked Scientists also won Chris the Biosciences Federation Prize for Science Communication, 2006,[1] the JOSH Award 2007,[2] the Society for General Microbiology's Peter Wildy Prize 2008, the Royal Society Kohn Award 2008,[3] the Best Radio Show Award at the Population Institute's 29th Global Media Awards, 2008,[4] the European Podcast Award for UK Non-Profit podcast,[5] and the inaugural Royal College of Pathologists Furness Prize for Science Communication, 2010.
References
- ^ Biosciences Federation Science Communication Award 2006, Biosciences Federation
- ^ And the winner is..., Manchester Science Festival, October 25, 2007
- ^ Royal Society Kohn Award for Excellence in Engaging the Public with Science, The Royal Society
- ^ 29th Annual Global Media Award Winners Announced, The Population Institute Press Release, October 31, 2008
- ^ European Podcast Award 08/09 Winners announced
External links
Categories:- 21st-century English medical doctors
- English science writers
- Academics of the University of Cambridge
- English radio presenters
- Science journalists
- Science teachers
- Living people
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