Professor Jim Al-Khalili
speaker
535 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 15 Jun
Professor Jim Al-Khalili’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
You've been involved with several of them.
Is there any single example that stands out for you?
Well, Seth, I mentioned in the introduction that you built a lab in the wardrobe of your childhood bedroom.
Tell me how on earth that came about.
Yes.
Well, certainly those early home experiments stood you in good stead.
You ended up going to study medicine at Brown University.
And in the summer of 1978, as a young medical student, you went to get some hands-on experience at a clinic in Mississippi, which ended up being a formative time for you.
Well, after qualifying in 1981, Seth, you did your residency in Boston at Harvard University's teaching hospital, Beth Israel.
Then you took a job as a medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
You remained focused on finding a way into global health.
And in fact, during your next role as a state epidemiologist in Massachusetts, you got the opportunity to work briefly in Sudan.
And of course, you know, there was a measles vaccine.
Yes, it was a case that Sudan couldn't get hold of it or couldn't get hold of enough.
Speaking of measles, and let's bring this up to date for a moment, many listeners will know that at the start of this year, the World Health Organization revoked the UK's measles elimination status, along with that of several other European countries, after multiple outbreaks here.
There's a similar situation unfolding in the US.
As we're recording, it still technically has this elimination status, but the latest statistics suggest it will lose that in November when the next official assessment takes place.
What's gone wrong here?
And in your view, is there a simple way to fix it?
Well, Seth, back to your story.
Showing 461–480 of 535 · page 24 of 27
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