Richard Wiseman

Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician, and was one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle. He then obtained a degree in psychology from University College London and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.Richard currently holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, where he has gained an international reputation for research into psychology of luck, self-help, persuasion, and illusion. He has published over 50 papers in leading peer reviewed academic journals (including Nature and Psychological Bulletin), and his work has been cited in over 20 introductory textbooks.A passionate advocate for science, his best-selling books have been translated into over 30 languages and he has presented keynote addresses at several organisations, including Microsoft, The Royal Society, Caltech, and Google.Richard is the most followed British psychologist on Twitter, and has created viral videos that have received over 40 million views. Over 2 million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments and he has acted as a creative consultant to Derren Brown, The MythBusters, CBS’s The Mentalist, and Heston Blumenthal, Nick Cave, and the West End play ‘Ghost Stories’.Richard is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle, an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, and a Fellow of the Rationalist Association. He is one of the most frequently quoted psychologists in the British media and was recently listed in the Independent On Sunday’s top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live.He likes sushi, is fond of dogs, and finds Arrested Development very funny.