Described by The Times as both “the world’s most enthusiastic man” and “an expert on everything from pop music to astrophysics”, by the Daily Mail as someone whose “wit and enthusiasm can enliven the dullest of topics”, and by the Daily Telegraph as “dauntless”, Quentin hosts a diverse range of events in Britain and beyond as well as appearing regularly on radio, TV and in print. He’s probably best known for presenting the UK's most listened to science programme, The Material World on BBC Radio 4’s - “the most accessible, funny and conversational science programme on radio” according to The Radio Times, “excellent...a splendid listen” according to Nature.
Quentin is much in demand to host conferences, chair panels, facilitate debates, conduct interviews, give talks, and run science communication and media skills workshops. Among organisations he’s worked for regularly and recently are BBC Training, the British Council, the European Commission, the Institute of Physics, Channel 4, NESTA, The Guardian, Lego, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, The World Diabetes Foundation, The Institute of Engineering & Technology, ESCONET (The European Science Communication Network), The London School of Economics, The Scottish Crop Research Institute, The UK Energy Research Centre, many universities and several UK research councils (NERC, EPSRC, BBSRC). He is also an adviser for a number of science organisations and events including Cheltenham Science Festival, the Wellcome Trust and Newcastle’s Life Centre, and was a judge for the first Wellcome Book prize in 2009.
Recent events he has hosted include an EU summit in Sweden on the future of research, a Nobel laureate symposium on climate change for St James’ Palace, a forum on global diabetes in India, the first European forum on science journalism in Barcelona, a panel discussion on Non Communicable Diseases at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, the press launch of the Innovative Medicines Initiative in Brussels, a series of Knowledge Transfer conferences at St Andrew’s and Heriot-Watt Universities, international student summits at the Natural History Museum, a five-hour fiery debate about the image of scientists in Moscow, all sorts of Darwin-related events, talks for various schools and colleges, science communication workshops from Azerbaijan to Yemen (not quite A-Z)...and the Royal Festival Hall’s Uummannaq Day combining poetry and beat-boxing with climate science. He’s also a regular event host at many UK and European science festivals, and from 2001-8 he directed and presented the nightly X-Change events at the BA and the European Science Open Forum.
Among other radio and TV science series he’s scripted and presented are Connect, Catalyst, Logged On, Strictly Conventional and With Reference To all for Radio 4, New Scientist Reports on the Discovery Channel, the long-running Science Fix for BBC TV, Science in Action and Soundbyte for BBC World Service, and The Formula and Big Byte for 5Live. He writes for a range of national newspapers and magazines and is also a film critic, author and half of a short-lived clickboxing duo with Oscar-winner Ryuichi Sakamoto. He regularly turns up on a range of other TV and radio networks, podcasts and publications including a long-standing slot covering entertainment on BBC Radio 2 first with Michael Parkinson and now Michael Ball.
A passionate believer that science is a perspective rather than a subject and that with the right approach everyone can engage with it at some level, Quentin spends an increasing amount of time dealing with the issues surrounding climate change and the environment and is particularly entangled with the ongoing science-art Cape Farewell project having been a crew member on their 2004 Svalbard and 2008 Greenland voyages.
Quentin studied Psychology and Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh University from 1979-83 which perfectly prepared him for joining BBC Radio Scotland as a news trainee in 1985. Having worked as sub-editor, reporter, producer and editor – setting up youth and music programmes featuring such then-unknowns as Eddie Mair, Armando Iannucci, Kirsty Young and Hardeep Singh Kohli – he joined the nascent Radio Five in Manchester where he united Mark Radcliffe and Mark Riley on the fondly forgotten Hit The North. Then after a stint producing arts programmes for Radios 3 & 4 he somehow became a regular presenter on Kaleidoscope and film critic for 5Live and BBC Breakfast. At this point his sordid science past was exposed and he began presenting science series for 5Live, World Service, BBC4, Discovery Channel and – eventually – Radio 4.