Robyn Williams AM
Born: 1944, High Wickham, UK
Robyn Williams has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of London. He joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Science Unit in 1972 where in 1975 he began hosting the award-winning Science Show, now one of the longest-running programs on Australian radio. He has also made frequent appearances on ABC TV for such programs as Quantum and Catalyst, and narrated the series Nature of Australia.
Outside the ABC, Robyn has served as president of the Australian Museum Trust, chairman of the Commission for the Future and president of Australian Science Communicators. In 1987, he was proclaimed a National Living Treasure.
Williams has Honorary Doctorates of Science from Deakin University, the University of Sydney and Macquarie University, and an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the Australian National University. In 1993 he became the first journalist to be elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
In May 2008 he hosted a link between leading scientists of Australia and the United Kingdom at the Grand Launch for the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Williams has received the Human Rights Commission Radio Award, the United Nations Media Peace Prize and the Michael Daley Award for Science Journalism.
He is a visiting professor at the University of NSW and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland.
Robyn Williams has written more than 10 books, and has a star in the constellation Carina named after him. He wrote his autobiography, And Now for Something Completely Different, while on a Reuters Fellowship at Oxford University.
RiAus Involvement
Seven Deadly Sins: Anger – the science of wrath (15 March 2011) presented by RiAus
Adelaide: Water of a city (10 March 2010) presented by RiAus
Career highlights
1988: AM.
1993: Australian Humanist of the Year
1993: Elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
1994: Reuters Fellowship, University of Oxford
1996: Centre for Australian Cultural Studies National Award
1996: Visiting Fellow at Balliol College Oxford
More by and about Robyn Williams
And Now for Something Completely Different (autobiography), Robyn Williams, 1995
Future Perfect: What’s Next? And Other Impossible Questions, Robyn Williams, 2007
Unintelligent Design: Why God isn’t as smart as She thinks She is, Robyn Williams
ABC Talking Heads, Interview with Robyn Williams, November 2005
Robyn Williams, Official Biography
