Professor Alice Roberts BSc MB BCh PhD Hon.FBAASc

PhD - University of Bristol; June 2008

MB BCh - University of Wales College of Medicine; June 1997

BSc (hons) Anatomy; class I - University of Wales College of Cardiff; June 1994

 

DSc (honoris causa) - Royal Holloway University of London, 2013

DSc (honoris causa) - Bournemouth University, 2013

DSc (honoris causa) - Open University, 2015

MD (honoris causa) - Sussex University, 2015

Alice Roberts originally studied medicine and anatomy at Cardiff University, and worked as a junior doctor in South Wales before becoming a lecturer in anatomy at Bristol University, where she worked for eleven years. She taught anatomy at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and undertook research in osteoarchaeology, completing a PhD in palaeopathology. She developed a strong interest in public engagement, becoming a television presenter, writing popular science books, and giving public talks. Alice has been Professor of Public Engagement with Science at the University of Birmingham since 2012, and chairs the university’s Public Engagement with Science Committee.

Alice has designed and organised undergraduate and postgraduate anatomy courses, teaching a range of subjects including topographical and evolutionary anatomy; embryology, human and vertebrate evolution, osteology and palaeopathology. She currently teaches on several courses at the University of Birmingham, including biological sciences, sport and exercise sciences and BMedSc Clinical Sciences.

Alice Roberts has co-supervised a postgraduate student studying locomotor behaviour and anatomy in human and non-human apes. She is currently a member of the supervisory team for a postgraduate student investigating ageing in chimpanzees. 

Biosystems and Environmental Change research theme

Research interests: evolutionary anatomy, osteoarchaeology and palaeopathology

Visiting fellow at the University of Bristol
Director of Anatomy for the NHS Severn School of Surgery from 2009 to 2016
Member of the Advisory Board of the Cheltenham Festival of Science
Member of the committee for the Wellcome Trust Society Awards
Member of the Visitor’s Board of Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Member of the Longitude Prize Committee
Patron of the Association of Science and Discovery Centres
Patron of the Natural Sciences Collections Association
Patron of Twycross Zoo.

BBC programmes and series include:
BBC2’s long-running Coast series; Don’t Die Young; The Incredible Human Journey; Wild Swimming; Digging for Britain; Origins of Us; Woolly Mammoth; Ice Age Giants; Prehistoric Autopsy; The Celts; Food Detectives; Britain’s Pompeii; The Greatest Tomb on Earth; several Horizon programmes.
Alice Roberts is also a regular presenter on Radio 4’s environment series, Costing the Earth.

She has written seven popular science books. Her recent book on human embryology and evolution, The Incredible unlikeliness of Being, was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize in 2015.

Alice regularly delivers public talks expanding on themes covered in her research, television programmes and books. These have included a sold-out Royal Geographical Society lecture tour in theatres across the UK, talks at Glastonbury Festival and at Cheltenham Festival of Science.

Alice is an honorary fellow of the British Science Association and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. She has received honorary doctorates from Royal Holloway University of LondonBournemouth University, Sussex University and the Open University.