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]
Careeredit
Highfield served as the science editor of 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 organized 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 for the British magazine New Scientist from 2008 to 2011, where he redesigned the magazine and introduced new sections, notably Aperture and Instant Expert.[4][5]
As of 2011[update], Highfield became the director of External Affairs at the Science Museum Group.[9]
In 2016 he launched a critique of big data in biology with Ed Dougherty of Texas A&M and Peter Coveney.[19]
In 2019, Highfield became the science director at the Science Museum Group.[20] For the group, he wrote a series of long-form blogs about the science of Covid19[21] and in 2021 organized a special Covid19 issue of the Royal Society journal Interface Focus.[22]
Highfield is a visiting professor of Public Engagement at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology.[23] He is also a visiting professor of Public Engagement at the Department of Chemistry at UCL[24] and a member of the Medical Research Council.[25] In April 2023, he was made the honorary president of the Association of British Science Writers, taking over from the veteran BBC correspondent Pallab Ghosh.[26]
Popular science booksedit
Highfield has written and co-authored nine popular science books, and edited two written by Craig Venter, including:
Virtual You, coauthored with Peter Coveney. The Financial Times listed it as a book to read in 2023.[27]
The Mind Readers (2014). 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,[28] The Week,[29] The Independent[30] and Pacific Standard.[31]
Supercooperators (2011), 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."[32]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[33]
After Dolly (2006), 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."[34]
The Physics of Christmas (1998); Can Reindeer Fly? (title in England). Received the world's shortest book review ("No").[36]
Frontiers of Complexity (1996), co-authored with Peter Coveney.[37]Philip Warren Anderson commented that "I believe firmly, with Coveney and Highfield, that complexity is the scientific frontier".[38][39]
The Private Lives of Albert Einstein (1993), co-authored with Paul Carter. J. G. Ballard commented in a review: "In their lucid and scrupulously researched biography, Roger Highfield and Paul Carter reveal a very different Einstein. To their great credit, these startling revelations never diminish the man but only increase our sense of wonder."[40]
The Arrow of Time (1991), , co-authored with Peter Coveney.
Awards and honoursedit
Highfield is a member of the Longitude Committee.[41]
Highfield met his wife, Julia Brookes, at the University of Oxford. They married in 1992 and have one son and one daughter.[1]
Referencesedit
^ abcdefAnon (2015). "Highfield, Dr Roger Ronald". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U246732. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ ab"50 leading biomedical and health scientists elected to the prestigious Academy Fellowship | the Academy of Medical Sciences".
^Roger Highfield's author page on Amazon, Amazon.com
^ abc"Roger Highfield biography". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 5 June 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
^ ab"Roger Highfield on science writing: 'Grab them with your first sentence'". The Guardian. 20 March 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
^Roger Highfield's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
^Highfield, Roger Ronald (1983). Neutron scattering from chemical species (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford.
^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.
^ ab"The Royal Institution – Roger Highfield". The Royal Institution. 2011. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
^Highfield, Roger; Derbyshire, David; Uhlig, Robert (7 September 2000). "Young science writers pick-up awards". The Daily Telegraph. London.
^"Why you should enter science writing competitions". 13 May 2011.
^Highfield, Roger (20 September 2001). "The world as you've never seen it before". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014.
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 December 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Highfield, R. (2000). "ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: Selling Science to the Public". Science. 289 (5476): 59. doi:10.1126/science.289.5476.59. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17832963. S2CID 153667872.
^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. PMID 23259956.
^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.
^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.
^Coveney, P. V.; Dougherty, E. R.; Highfield, R. R. (2016). "Big Data need Big Theory too". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 374 (2080): 1373–1386. Bibcode:2016RSPTA.37460153C. doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0153. PMC5052735. PMID 27698035.
^Poole, Steven (23 September 2006). "Et cetera: Sep 23". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
^Kenneally, Christine (5 January 2003). "Books in Brief: Nonfiction". The New York Times.
^Singh, Simon (1 December 2002). "Observer review: The Science of Harry Potter by Roger Highfield". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
^Coveney, Peter; Highfield, Roger (1991). "The arrow of time". Nature. 350 (6318): 456. Bibcode:1991Natur.350..456C. doi:10.1038/350456a0. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 2014048. S2CID 43532317.
^More And Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon ISBN 9814350125
^Anderson, Philip W. (2011). More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon. World Scientific. ISBN 9789814350143.
^"A Mind Firmly Set on the Universe: Review of The Private Lives of Albert Einstein by Roger Highfield and Paul Carter, and Einstein: A Life in Science by Michael White and John Gribbin". The Daily Telegraph. "Weekend" section. 4 September 1993.