Simon Singh

When it comes to cosmology, mathematics, information security and science, no one is better qualified than best-selling author and award winning documentary director, Simon Singh, as a  keynote speaker  , who also speaks widely on the pros and cons of alternative medicine.

When Simon’s family moved to England from India in 1950, they settled in Somerset, where Simon’s early education took place before he went on to study physics at Imperial College in London, before completing a PhD in particle physics at Cambridge University and at CERN, in Switzerland.

His first job after graduating was with the BBC's Science Department, where he produced and directed many science themed shows, including Horizon and Tomorrow’s World. Fermat's Last Theorem won a BAFTA in 1996, and explained the world's most notorious mathematical problem to the masses, as well as putting Simon on the map. The American version of the documentary was nominated for an Emmy, and the book that the film was based on became a number one seller in the UK.

When his incredibly successful work, The Code Book came out, Simon presented a history of codes and codebreaking to a rapt young audience, and depicted how cryptography is more important in the current information age than ever before.

Fuelled by the success of The Code Book, Simon’s TV career has been reinvigorated. After presenting The Science of Secrecy, a 5-part series for Channel 4, Simon’s credibility and audience appeal has become unquestionable. The stories in the series range from the cipher that sealed the fate of Mary Queen of Scots to the coded Zimmermann Telegram that changed the course of the First World War.

His third book, Big Bang, is a history of cosmology, and was followed up by The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets in 2013, which explores the vast amount of mathematics smuggled into the world’s most successful sitcom by its impressively numerate writers.

Working closely with education projects, Simon has used the UAS scheme to encourage university science departments to work more closely with schools and the Enigma project for conduct maths and cryptography workshops in schools.

Simon’s ability to make the complex subjects simple and invigorate engaging interest in maths and science makes him an ideal keynote speaker for events around this theme.