Adam Hart-Davis

Born on 4 July 1943, Adam Hart-Davis is a freelance photographer, writer, and broadcaster – presenter on television of Tomorrow’s World, What the Romans, Victorians, Tudors and Stuarts, Greeks, Egyptians, and others did for us, Science Shack, Local Heroes, Stardate, and How London was Built. For Radio 4 he has made several series of Inventors Imperfect, Inspiration!, Engineering Solutions, and Eureka Years. He has won various awards for both television and radio.

Before presenting, Adam spent five years in publishing and 17 years at Yorkshire Television, as researcher and then producer of such series as Scientific Eye and Arthur C Clarke’s World of Strange Powers.

He has read several books, and written about 24, including World’s weirdest ‘true’ ghost stories, Thunder, flush, and Thomas Crapper (an encycLOOpedia), Amazing math puzzles, and What the Victorians, etc. did for us. His latest books are Taking the piss, and Just another day. For the Oxford Companion to the Body he wrote articles on Burp, Defecate, and Farting. He has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and a regular column in the Radio Times.

A Companion of the Institution of Lighting Engineers, an Honorary Member of the British Toilet Association, an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists, and patron of a dozen charitable organisations, Adam has collected twelve honorary doctorates, The Horace Hockley Award from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators, a Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Medal from the Institute of Incorporated Engineers, and the 1999 Gerald Frewer memorial trophy of the Council of Engineering Designers. He has no car, but six cycles, one for every occasion.