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Simon Singh
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Simon Lehna Singh, MBE (born 1964) is an Indian-British author of Punjabi background, who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner. He is the youngest of three brothers, his eldest brother being Tom Singh, the founder of the UK New Look chain of stores.
His written works include Fermat's Last Theorem (in the United States titled Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem), The Code Book (about cryptography and its history) and Big Bang (about the Big Bang theory and the origins of the universe).
He has also produced documentaries and works for television to accompany his books, is a trustee of NESTA, the National Museum of Science and Industry and co-founded the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme.
BiographySingh's parents emigrated from the Punjab in India to Britain in 1950. He grew up in Wellington, Somerset, attending Wellington School, and then went on to Imperial College London, where he studied Physics, before completing a PhD degree in particle physics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University and at CERN, Geneva. In 1990 he joined the BBC's Science and Features Department, where he was a producer and director working on programmes such as Tomorrow's World and Horizon.
In 1996, he directed Fermat's Last Theorem, a BAFTA award-winning documentary about the world's most notorious mathematical problem. The film was memorable for its opening shot of a middle-aged mathematician, Andrew Wiles bursting into tears as he recalled the moment when he thought he had resolved the problem after several years working in secret, released his proof to the world, then found that it still had a hole in it. The documentary was also aired in America as part of the NOVA series. The Proof, as it was re-titled, was nominated for an Emmy Award.
The story of this notorious mathematical problem was also the subject of Singh's first book, Fermat's last theorem. This was the first book about mathematics to become a No 1 bestseller in the UK. In 1997, he began working on his second book, The Code Book, a history of codes and codebreaking. As well as explaining the science of codes and describing the impact of cryptography on history, the book also contends that cryptography is more important today than ever before. The Code Book has resulted in a return to television for him. He presented The Science of Secrecy, a five part series for Channel 4. 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. Other programmes discuss how two great 19th century geniuses raced to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs and how modern encryption can guarantee privacy on the Internet. Singh's most recent book Big Bang, published October 2004, tells the history of the universe. It is told in his trademark style, by following the remarkable stories of the people who put the pieces together.
In 2003, Singh was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Science, Technology and Engineering in Education and Science Communication. In the same year he was made Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by Loughborough University, and in 2005 was given an honorary degree in Mathematics by Southampton University.
Currently, he is involved more in television and radio programmes, including A Further Five Numbers (BBC Radio 4, 2005).
He made headlines in 2005, when he criticised the Katie Melua song "Nine Million Bicycles" for inaccurate lyrics referring to the size of the observable universe, and proposed a correction. BBC Radio 4's Today programme brought Melua and Singh together in a radio studio where Melua recorded a tongue-in-cheek accurate version of the song that had been written by Singh.. Unfortunately, Singh's correction is not accurate. Singh proposed a distance of 13.7 billion light-years to the edge of the observable universe instead of 12 billion light-years that appears in the original version of the song. Actually, the distance to the "edge" of the observable universe is much larger (about 46 billion light years) because of the fast expansion of the universe.
In 2006 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Design degree by the University of the West of England "in recognition of Simon Singh’s outstanding contribution to the public understanding of science, in particular in the promotion of science, engineering and mathematics in schools and in the building of links between universities and schools". This was followed up by his receipt of the Kelvin Medal from the Institute of Physics in 2008, for his achievements in promoting Physics to the general public. In July 2008, he was also awarded a Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by Royal Holloway, University of London.
Bibliography
External links Biographical
Radio shows
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