Jim Al-Khalili Delivers 50th Anniversary Science Lecture

Published on isbi School News dated Tuesday 3rd of May 2016

Professor Jim Al-Khalili, BBC presenter of TV and radio programmes including Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, inspired an audience of students and parents with his talk ‘Is Life Quantum Mechanical?’ at Bedales School on 19 April. Prof Al-Khalili, who was awarded an OBE in 2007 for his services to science, is a physicist, author and broadcaster based at the University of Surrey, where he also holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. His lecture, which focused on the emerging field of quantum biology, was the 50th anniversary lecture for the school’s Eckersley Lecture series, named after brothers and former Bedales students, Peter and Thomas Eckersley. Professor Sir Lawrence Bragg gave the first Eckersley Lecture at Bedales in 1966. Head of Bedales Science, Richard Sinclair said: “For 50 years, The Eckersley Lecture has enabled some of the world’s greatest scientific thinkers to communicate their ideas and research to the Bedales community. We are grateful to Prof Jim Al-Khalili for maintaining this great tradition with his stimulating lecture and also for spending time beforehand enthusing and advising Bedales students”. Peter Eckersley was the former chief engineer at the BBC and his brother Thomas was a theoretical research engineer; they both attended Bedales during the early 1900s. The lecture series, which is supported by the school’s alumni body The Bedales Association, boasts two Nobel Prize winners and 10 Knights and Dames amongst its speakers and is a highlight in the school’s Science programme.