Roger Highfield

Roger Highfield

Roger Highfield in 2014 at Cabo da Roca
Born Roger Ronald Highfield
July 1958 (age 57)[1]
Griffithstown, Wales[1]
Institutions
Alma mater
Thesis Neutron scattering from chemical species (1983)
Notable awards
Spouse Julia Brookes (m. 1992)
Children
  • one s
  • one d[1]
Website
www.rogerhighfield.com
Highfield's voice
recorded February 2014
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Roger Ronald Highfield (born 1958 in Griffithstown, Wales)[1] is an author,[2] science journalist, broadcaster and director of external affairs at the Science Museum Group.[3][4][5][6]

Education

Highfield was educated at Chase Side Primary School in Enfield and Christ's Hospital in Horsham.[1] He read Chemistry at Pembroke College, Oxford and was awarded a Master of Arts degree in Chemistry in 1980 followed by a Doctor of Philosophy for research on Neutron scattering from chemical species.[3][7]

During his research career, he was the first to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble while he was working at the Institut Laue Langevin.[8]

Career

Highfield was the Science editor of British newspaper The Daily Telegraph for more than 20 years.[9] During that time he set up a long running science writing award for young people,[10][11] a photography competition,[12] the 'scientists meet the media' party,[13] and organised mass experiments from 1994 with BBC's Tomorrow's World, called Live Lab and Megalab,[14] such as the 'Truth Test' with Richard Wiseman.[15]

He was the editor of the British magazine New Scientist from 2008 to 2011, where he redesigned the magazine and introduced new sections, notably Aperture and Instant Expert.[3][4]

As of 2011 Highfield became the Director of External Affairs at the Science Museum Group.[9]

In 2012, he published the results of a mass intelligence test [16][17][18] with Adrian Owen.

Popular science books published

Highfield has written or co-authored seven popular science books, and edited two written by Craig Venter, including:

The Mind Readers

In 2014 he wrote a 10,000 word article The Mind Readers in Mosaic,[19] published by the Wellcome Trust. His account of the efforts to communicate with brain damaged patients that suffer disorders of consciousness was reproduced in other media worldwide, such as Gizmodo,[20] The Week,[21] The Independent [22] and Pacific Standard.[23]

Supercooperators

In 2011 his book Supercooperators: The Mathematics of Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour (Or, Why We Need Each Other to Succeed)[24] was published, co-authored with Martin Nowak. A review published in Nature by Manfred Milinski describes the book as "part autobiography, part textbook, and reads like a best-selling novel."[25] David Willetts, in the Financial Times, described the book as an "excellent example" of using the nexus of evolutionary biology, game theory and neuroscience to understand the development of cooperation in society[26]

After Dolly

In 2006 his book After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning[27] was published, co-authored with Ian Wilmut. Steven Poole in The Guardian describes the book as "an extremely lucid and readable explanation of the history of cloning and biologists' ideas for the future."[28]

The Science of Harry Potter

In 2002 his book The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works[29] was published. Christine Kenneally in The New York Times describes the book as "an enjoyably indirect survey of modern science."[30]

The Physics of Christmas

In 1998 his book The Physics of Christmas: from the aerodynamics of reindeer to the thermodynamics of turkey was published.[31] The British edition, Can Reindeer Fly?,[32] got the world's shortest book review ('No')[33]

Frontiers of Complexity

In 1996 his book Frontiers of Complexity: the search for order in a chaotic world[34] was published, co-authored with Peter Coveney.[35] The Nobel Laureate Philip Warren Anderson commented that 'I believe firmly, with Coveney and Highfield, that complexity is the scientific frontier.'[36][37]

The Private Lives of Albert Einstein

In 1993 his book The Private Lives of Albert Einstein[38] was published, co-authored with Paul Carter.

The Arrow of Time

In 1991 his book The Arrow of Time[39] was published, co-authored with Peter Coveney, which became a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and New York Times notable book of the year.

Awards and honours

In 2014, he gave the Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture for Save the Rhino with Simon Singh.

Highfield is a member of the Longitude Committee,[40] for the Longitude Prize 2014,

Highfield continues to write for The Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard[41] and for Newsweek.[42]

After testing a treadmill desk in 2006,[43] Highfield uses one at work in the Science Museum and has advocated their widespread adoption.[44][45] He often invites his visitors to take it for a spin, including Heston Blumenthal, Craig Venter, Samira Ahmed, Al Jean, Ben Miller and Dame Gail Rebuck [46]

In 2012, Highfield gave the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Lecture, on Heroes of Science, at the Royal Society.[47]

Personal life

Highfield married Julia Brookes in 1992 and has one son and one daughter.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 HIGHFIELD, Dr Roger Ronald. Who's Who 2015 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Roger Highfield's author page on Amazon, Amazon.com
  3. 1 2 3 "Roger Highfield biography". The Daily Telegraph (London: Telegraph Media Group). Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Roger Highfield on science writing: 'Grab them with your first sentence'". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). 20 March 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  5. ↑ Roger Highfield on Twitter
  6. ↑ Roger Highfield's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier.
  7. ↑ Highfield, Roger Ronald (1983). Neutron scattering from chemical species (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford.
  8. ↑ Highfield, R.R; Humes, R.P; Thomas, R.K; Cummins, P.G; Gregory, D.P; Mingins, J; Hayter, J.B; Schaerpf, O (1984). "Critical reflection of neutrons from a soap film". Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 97 (2): 367–373. doi:10.1016/0021-9797(84)90307-2. ISSN 0021-9797.
  9. 1 2 "The Royal Institution - Roger Highfield". The Royal Institution. 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  10. ↑ Highfield, Roger; Derbyshire, David; Uhlig, Robert (7 September 2000). "Young science writers pick-up awards". The Daily Telegraph (London).
  11. ↑ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/05/13/why-you-should-enter-science-writing-competitions/
  12. ↑ Highfield, Roger (20 September 2001). "The world as you've never seen it before". The Daily Telegraph (London).
  13. ↑ http://www.rogerhighfield.com/media/first_telegraph_science_party.jpg
  14. ↑ Highfield, R. (2000). "ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: Selling Science to the Public". Science 289 (5476): 59–59. doi:10.1126/science.289.5476.59. ISSN 0036-8075.
  15. ↑ http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/Megalab.pdf
  16. ↑ Hampshire, Adam; Highfield, Roger R.; Parkin, Beth L.; Owen, Adrian M. (2012). "Fractionating Human Intelligence". Neuron 76 (6): 1225–1237. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.06.022. ISSN 0896-6273.
  17. ↑ Hampshire, Adam; Parkin, Beth; Highfield, Roger; Owen, Adrian M. (2014). "Response to: "Higher-order g versus blended variable models of mental ability: Comment on Hampshire, Highfield, Parkin, and Owen (2012)"". Personality and Individual Differences 60: 8–12. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.10.032. ISSN 0191-8869.
  18. ↑ Hampshire, Adam; Parkin, Beth; Highfield, Roger; Owen, Adrian M. (2014). "Brief response to Ashton and colleagues regarding Fractionating Human Intelligence". Personality and Individual Differences 60: 16–17. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.11.013. ISSN 0191-8869.
  19. ↑ http://mosaicscience.com/story/mind-readers
  20. ↑ http://gizmodo.com/mind-readers-the-scientists-setting-coma-victims-free-1565978432
  21. ↑ http://theweek.com/article/index/262735/trapped-between-life-and-death#axzz34WWu7jPK
  22. ↑ The Independent (London) http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/a-group-of-neuroscientists-believes-it-can-communicate-with-lockedin-coma-patients-9268369.html?origin=internalSearch. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  23. ↑ http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/defining-neuroscience-brain-a-measure-of-consciousness-81075/
  24. ↑ Supercooperators: The Mathematics of Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour ISBN 1847673368
  25. ↑ Milinski, M. (2011). "Biology: A revolution in evolution". Nature 471 (7338): 294–295. doi:10.1038/471294b.
  26. ↑ The invisible hand that binds us all by David Willetts FT 24-Apr-2011
  27. ↑ After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning ISBN 0316724696
  28. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/23/featuresreviews.guardianreview9
  29. ↑ The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works ISBN 0142003557
  30. ↑ Kenneally, Christine (5 January 2003). "Books in Brief: Nonfiction". The New York Times.
  31. ↑ The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey ISBN 0316366951
  32. ↑ Can Reindeer Fly?: The Science of Christmas ISBN 0753813661
  33. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/dec/01/scienceandnature.highereducation
  34. ↑ Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic World ISBN 0449910814
  35. ↑ Coveney, Peter; Highfield, Roger (1991). "The arrow of time". Nature 350 (6318): 456–456. doi:10.1038/350456a0. ISSN 0028-0836.
  36. ↑ More And Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon ISBN 9814350125
  37. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=tU9yOac455kC&pg=PA367
  38. ↑ The Private Lives of Albert Einstein ISBN 0312302274
  39. ↑ The Arrow of Time: The Quest to Solve Science's Greatest Mystery: The Quest to Solve Science's Greatest Mysteries ISBN 0006544622
  40. ↑ http://www.longitudeprize.org/committee
  41. ↑ http://www.standard.co.uk/biography/roger-highfield
  42. ↑ http://www.newsweek.com/user/8127
  43. ↑ Highfield, Roger (19 September 2006). "I've seen the future: it's a hamster wheel". The Daily Telegraph (London).
  44. ↑ The Independent (London) http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/walking-while-i-work-has-been-a-big-step-forward-8513805.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  45. ↑ "Treadmill desk: bring the gym to your office". The Daily Telegraph (London). 5 September 2014.
  46. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/roger.highfield.7/media_set?set=a.673352409391897.1073741830.100001514337135&type=3
  47. ↑ Heroes of Science at the Royal Society on YouTube, 2012-09-26
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