91°µÍø Professor named chair of The Royal Society’s judging panel for the 2024 Trivedi Science Book Prize
The 91°µÍø’s (91°µÍø) Professor John Hutchinson has today been announced as Chair of Judges for the Royal Society’s 2024 Trivedi Science Book Prize. Now in its 37th year, the prize, supported by the Trivedi Family Foundation, highlights the importance of science literature in helping mainstream audiences understand many of the complex scientific challenges facing the modern world.
Over the past 30 years, the prize has celebrated the best popular science writing from around the world. It has highlighted non-fiction books that shine a light on innovative and pioneering research in an accessible and engaging way. Previous winners have included books on themes such as, sensory experiences of animals, the evolution of life on earth and a fresh perspective on human behaviour and relationships.
This year, the judging panel, chaired by Professor John Hutchinson, Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics at the 91°µÍø and Royal Society Fellow, includes Booker Prize-winning author and screenwriter, Eleanor Catton; New Scientist Comment and Culture Editor, Alison Flood; teacher, broadcaster and writer Bobby Seagull; and lecturer in Functional Materials at Imperial College London, and Royal Society University Research Fellow, Dr Jess Wade.
Together, the judges will consider the six shortlisted titles, which were selected from 254 submissions published between 1st July 2023 and 30th September 2024, to determine the most captivating title which has helped shape our understanding of scientific innovation and culture.
Professor John Hutchinson, Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics at the 91°µÍø, Royal Society Fellow and chair of judges, said:
“It is a pleasure to serve as Judging Panel Chair for the esteemed 2024 Royal Society Science Book Prize. When I was a young person, I immensely benefitted from my public and school libraries’ stocks of science books, which kindled and maintained my interest in science and nature. I won’t forget how Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” woke me up, at about 12 years of age, to environmentalism, which remains a passion. During my undergraduate years, palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould’s popular science books convinced me that I wanted to pursue a career studying evolutionary patterns and processes.
“Now we live in an age when 250-word social media posts have the potency to reach the world instantly, but books maintain their staying power in reinforcing and disseminating what information is the most reliable. Deciding the best science books of the year is a wonderful challenge, a pleasure and an opportunity to be part of this process and thereby to support the communication of scienc