Simon Singh completed a PhD in particle physics and then joined the BBC and worked as a director and producer on programmes such as Tomorrow’s World and Horizon. He has also presented programmes on Radio 4, BBC4 and Channel 4. He is best known as the author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, which was the first book about mathematics to become a No.1 bestseller in the UK. His film on the same topic won a BAFTA. He is also the author of The Code Book (a history of cryptography), Big Bang (a history of cosmology), Trick or Treatment? (a critique of alternative medicine) and The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets.
After being sued for libel in 2008, Simon successfully defended his writing and then successfully campaigned for a reform of the defamation law. He has spent the last decade developing education projects to help increase the number and diversity of excellent mathematicians. His Parallel website offers free weekly maths puzzles sheets, over one million completed so far, and free weekly webinars, attended by 1,000 students each week.