When NASA classified Karl as non-astronaut material in 1981 he walked straight into ABC Radio station Double J and offered to talk about the Space shuttle launch. They said ‘Okay’ and his radio career took off from there. ‘Great Moments In Science’ ran on Double J while Karl moonlighted as a medical student.
Since then, his media career has exploded from radio, to TV, books, newspapers, magazines, scripting, professional speaking, and of course, the Net. Karl popularises science on ABC radio stations across Australia and, on the BBC, for several hours each week. Many of you will be familiar with the original talk back programme each Thursday on JJJ from 11am to midday.
Karl has written 43 books and along side his fellow geek Adam Spencer, he has also written and co-produced two series of Sleek Geeks for ABC TV. In November 2010, Karl’s 30th book, ‘Curious & Curiouser’, was released into the adult non-fiction market.
In August 2000 Karl was one of first eight Australian Apple Masters to be announced. The Apple Masters Program celebrates the achievements of people who are changing the world through their passion and vision, while inspiring new approaches to creative thinking.
In 2002, Dr Karl was honoured with the prestigious Ig Nobel prize awarded by Harvard University in the USA for his ground-breaking research into Belly Button Lint and why it is almost always blue.
In 2012 Karl was delighted to have Asteroid 18412 named after him. Asteroid Dr Karl/18412 was discovered by Robert H. McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, on June 13, 1993.
In 2016 Dr Karl was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Sunshine Coast. Karl has degrees in Physics and Maths, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine and Surgery and has worked as a physicist, tutor, film-maker, car mechanic, labourer, and as a medical doctor at the Kids’ Hospital in Sydney.
Dr Karl is currently the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at Sydney University, where his ‘mission’ is to spread the good word about science and its benefits. His latest book for adults ‘Karl, The Universe and Everything’ was released in October 2017. He released two kids’ activity books ‘Dr Karl’s Little Book of Dinos’ and ‘Dr Karl’s Little Books of Space’ in June 2017’. His enthusiasm for science is totally infectious and no one is better able to convey the excitement and wonder of it all than Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.