Brian Cox has chaired debates and given invited talks at conferences around the world, in places as diverse as Hanoi, Rio and many cities in the US and Europe; in 2006, he was a keynote speaker at the Australian Science Festival. Later in 2006 he was awarded the prestigious Lord Kelvin Award by the British Association for his work in publicising science, and in particular particle physics, to the public.

Brian’s ability to present science in an exciting and interesting way has made him a popular television and radio presenter, broadcaster and writer. Credits include: Horizon - The Large Hadron Collider (BBC1, 2007), Sunshine (Scientific Consultant, DNA/Fox Searchlight, 2005-7), The Bell (Teachers TV, 2007), Horizon - Einstein (BBC1, 2005), and The Prime of Marin Mersenne (BBC Radio 4, 2006).

In 2005 Brian was granted a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He is based in Manchester and at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. He is in charge of an international project to upgrade the giant ATLAS and CMS detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), CERN’s new 27km-long machine, with tiny silicon detectors almost half a mile from where the particles in the LHC collide.

Brian was also keyboardist for the band D:Ream, who had a Top Twenty single with ‘Things Can Only Get Better’  in 1997 when it was used in New Labour’s election campaign.

[Photograph: Vincent Connare]