James Randi
James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world's most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Randi has pursued "psychic" spoonbenders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water "with a memory," and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public's eyes in the name of the supernatural.
He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1986. PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO ILLNESS, JAMES RANDI WILL NOT BE APPEARING IN PERSON. We are hoping to arrange a live weblink instead.
Phil Plait
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, author, and President of the James Randi Educational Foundation. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, Bad Astronomy and Death From The Skies, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Adam Savage
Adam Savage is an American industrial design and special effects engineer, actor, educator, and co-host of the popular television series MythBusters. He says he has spent his life "gathering skills that allow him to take what's in his brain and make it real". He's built everything from ancient Buddhas to futuristic weapons, from spaceships to dancing vegetables, from fine art sculptures to animated chocolate — and just about anything else you can think of.
Richard Wiseman
Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as an award-winning professional magician, and was one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle. He then obtained a first class honours degree in Psychology from University College London and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Edinburgh. For the past twelve years he has been the head of a research unit at the University of Hertfordshire, and in 2002 was awarded Britain's first Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology. Prof Wiseman has established an international reputation for his research into unusual areas of psychology, including deception, luck and the paranormal.
Tim Minchin
Tim Minchin is an Australian comedian, actor and musician. He is best known for his unique musical comedy, heavy on skepticism, which has featured in three CDs, two DVDs and a number of live comedy shows. His recent beat poem, 'Storm', became a viral hit among skeptics and beyond, and is being made into an animated film which will be previewed at TAM London.
Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson is a writer and documentary film maker. His books, Them: Adventures With Extremists and The Men Who Stare At Goats were international bestsellers. The Men Who Stare At Goats is currently being filmed as a major motion picture starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. He's also the author of two collections, Out Of The Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness and What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness.
Ariane Sherine
Ariane Sherine is a television comedy writer, journalist and the creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign. She writes regularly for The Guardian’s Comment & Debate section, and has also contributed to The Independent, The Sunday Times, New Statesman and the NME, as well as writing for television shows including My Family (BBC1) and Countdown (Channel 4). Ariane won a Special Award from the National Secular Society for the campaign, and was also a nominee for Secularist of the Year 2009. She was asked to give the first humanist equivalent of Thought For The Day on Radio 4 in January 2009.
Brian Cox
Professor Brian Cox is a particle physicist, a Royal Society research fellow, and a professor at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. He is also working on the FP420 R&D project in an international collaboration to upgrade the ATLAS and the CMS experiment by installing additional, smaller detectors at a distance of 420 metres from the interaction points of the main experiments. He is best known to the public as the presenter of a number of science programmes for the BBC.
Ben Goldacre
Ben is an award winning writer, broadcaster, and medical doctor who has written the weekly Bad Science column in the Guardian since 2003.
He appears regularly on Radio 4 and TV, and has written for the Guardian, Time Out, New Statesman, and the British Medical Journal as well as various book chapters. His book, also called Bad Science, an Amazon bestseller, was published in 2008.
Simon Singh
Simon Singh is an author, journalist and TV producer, specialising in science and mathematics, which, he claims, are the only two subjects he has the faintest clue about. He is the author of The Code Book and Fermat's Last Theorem, and his latest book is Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial, which he co-authored with Edzard Ernst, the world’s first professor of complementary medicine.
George Hrab
George Hrab is a musician, skeptic and podcaster. As a drummer he has performed for President Clinton at the White House, entertained 5000 fans at the Astrodome during Super Bowl XXXVIII's festivities, played gigs at The Kennedy Center and New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, and even shared the stage with Elton John at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center. George is a regular performer at TAM Las Vegas and a firm favourite amongst skeptics.
Glenn Hill
Glenn Hill is the son of Elsie Wright, the artist and photographer of the 1916 'Cottingley Fairies' photographs with which Elsie and her cousin fooled the world. One of the best-loved paranormal hoaxes in history, the girls convinced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and many other respected citizens of the day, but finally admitted the truth in 1981. Glenn is the author of the book Religion Explained in an Hour. He was educated in India and England and served as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. His career included ten years with Rolls-Royce Aero Engines as test flight aircrew and in the Design Department. He was an elected Local Government Councillor for twenty years. Glenn is retired, married 35 years with three adult children.
Robin Ince
Robin Ince is a comedian, writer and actor, and the winner of a Time Out award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. He has created several highly-successful events including School for Gifted Children, Book Club, and Nine Carols and Lessons for Godless People which included acts such as Ricky Gervais, Tim Minchin and Jarvis Cocker. He was a support act on Ricky Gervais's 2004 Politics tour and 2007 Fame tour, and has just completed his own UK tour entitled 'Bleeding Heart Liberal'. For TAM London, Robin is presenting an evening of science and comedy with some of Britain's best performers. Full line-up to be announced soon!