Jim Al-Khalili

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Jim Al-Khalili

Jim Al-Khalili ( OBE ; Jameel Sadik Al-Khalili ; born September 20, 1962 in Baghdad , Iraq ) is a British professor of theoretical nuclear physics , author, television and radio journalist.

Life

Al-Khalili was born on September 20, 1962 in Baghdad to the Iraqi Sadik Al-Khalili and the English Jean Wheatcroft. He grew up in Iraq with a brother and two sisters before the family moved permanently to the UK in 1979 . There he devoted himself to the study of physics at the University of Surrey , which he graduated in 1986 as a Bachelor . That year he also married his wife Julie. As early as 1989 he achieved the PhD degree in philosophy for his work in the field of theoretical nuclear physics. In the same year he was awarded a Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) research fellowship for postdoc at University College London . In 1991 he returned to Surrey, where he worked first as a research assistant and later as an assistant professor. In 1994 he was awarded a five-year Advanced Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) research fellowship, during which time he established himself as an expert in the field of neutron halo nuclei. His publications include over 60 articles in international journals.

Today Al-Khalili lives in Southsea , Hampshire with his wife Julie and their two children David and Kate. After being appointed Senior Lecturer in 2000, he has been Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey since 2005, where he also holds a Chair in Public Engagement in Science . His teaching activities so far have spanned both the UK and the rest of the world. In addition to his teaching activities, Al-Khalili is involved in the British Association for the Advancement of Science , where he is an honorary member, and he is also a member of the Institute of Physics. Al-Khalili has also been President of the British Humanist Association since December 2012 .

His most recent awards include the Public Awareness of Physics Award from the Institute of Physics (2000), the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for Science Journalism (2007) and the appointment of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE; 2008). In 2018 he was elected to the Royal Society .

Activity in radio

Al-Khalili appears regularly on television and radio.

He has contributed to several productions on television. This applies equally to programs with scientific content such as Tomorrow's World or BBC Horizon as to programs about art and culture, e.g. B. The South Bank Show . In 2007 he presented Atom , a three-part program that documents the development of our understanding of the structure of atoms.

The radio is Al-Khalili regular visitor to the Radio 4 telecast In Our Time , presenting the show The Life Scientific in the same station.

Publications (selection)

  • Intermediate Energy Deuteron Elastic Scattering from Nuclei in a Three-Body Model , PhD Thesis, University of Surrey, 1989, bibcode : 1989PhDT ........ 76A

Jim Al-Khalili is the author of these popular scientific works, among others:

  • Nucleus: A Trip into the Heart of Matter , Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2001, ISBN 0-8018-6860-2
  • Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines
    • German: Black holes, wormholes and time machines , translated by Heiner Must, Elsevier, Spektrum Akad. Verlag, Munich and Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-8274-1018-5
  • Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed , Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2004, ISBN 1-841-88238-0
    • German: Quantum: Modern physics to be amazed , translated by Heiner Must, Elsevier, Spektrum, Akda. Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-8274-1574-8
  • Pathfinders , Allen Lane, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-84614-161-4 , also under the title:
  • The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave us the Renaissance , Penguin Press, New York 2011, ISBN
    • German: In the house of wisdom. The Arabic sciences as the foundation of our culture , translated by Sebastian Vogel, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011 ISBN 978-3-10-000424-6

Some of his books have been translated into 13 languages.

A list of his books can be found on his website.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Press release ( memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Royal Society, as of: September 30, 2007, in the Internet Archive at archive.org (English)
  2. ↑ List of publications (English)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Al-Khalili, Jim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nuclear physicist, professor, author and broadcaster
DATE OF BIRTH 20th September 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Baghdad , Iraq