Naked Scientist wins Royal Society award for science communication

Radio presenter and Cambridge academic Dr Chris Smith has won the Royal Society’s prestigious Kohn Award for his success in bringing science to a wider audience, it was announced today.

Dr Smith juggles his career as a Clinical Lecturer and Specialist Registrar in virology at the University with extensive work as a science communicator fronting the UK's only local radio programme devoted to science.

The Kohn Award, presented annually by the Royal Society for outstanding efforts to engage the public with science, brings him a grant of £7,500 for further science communication projects, along with a silver gilt medal and a cash prize of £2,500.

Under the guise of 'The Naked Scientists', Dr Smith and his team of physicians and researchers based in Cambridge strip science down to its bare essentials every week on local BBC radio.

Dr Smith said: "I'm thrilled to receive the Kohn Award. Communicating science to the public is so crucial for our society and I enjoy every minute of working on the Naked Scientists.

"The letters and emails we receive every day from listeners all over the world really make the effort worth it. It's clear that our programmes are helping to enthuse young people about science which is incredibly satisfying to see and exactly what we set out to do. I'm also proud to work with a terrific team of people without whom none of this would be possible."

Dr Smith recognised the need for a science programme that would reach audiences without a specialist background and set up the Naked Scientists whilst working as a junior doctor.

Figures for BBC radio now show that The Naked Scientists is the most 'listened to again' show on every BBC station on which it is broadcast

It is also available as a podcast, and currently tops the science charts for downloads in the US, as well as hovering in the top 20 science downloads in the iTunes music stores for most of the rest of the world.

Each show includes a discussion of current scientific topics, as well as interviews with high profile scientists and phone-in questions from the general public. Guest scientists have included Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and James Watson.

However, producing the show hasn't always been so simple. As the programme grew in popularity so did the demands it was placing on the technology powering it.

Dr Smith said: "When podcasting really took off we were almost swept away by the tide of traffic that came our way. I blew up a couple of web-servers and was even ejected by a number of web-hosting companies for compromising their networks every time we published a show."

Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of Public Affairs at the Royal Society said: "Chris Smith is a beacon for science communication. The Kohn Award recognises his pioneering approach to making complex material accessible to a non-scientific audience. We hope it will enable him to continue his fantastic work and develop even more exciting parts of the Naked Scientists radio show."

Smith is well-known for innovative approach to listener participation. To encourage debate and to add a practical, visual component to the radio programme he has tested out ideas such as weekly 'kitchen science' experiments where listeners can take part in simple home experiments alongside the broadcast and compete to be the first through on the phones with their findings and interpretations.

The Naked Scientists are based at Cambridge University, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EPSRC, and technical support is provided by UKFast.net.