Dr Mark Lythgoe is a neurophysiologist at the Institute of Child Health (UCL). He runs the experimental MRI facility developing novel techniques for brain imaging and is actively interested in the neurobiology of creativity.
Mark is passionately involved in the public engagement of science and has collaborated with a wide variety of artists to create works from sculpture to film. Mark has recently presented a documentary series for the BBC on the science of attraction and compatibility called Is this the one? and a C4 programme, investigating the neuroscience behind genius, called The Secret of Einstein’s Brain. He has also just finished a series for the Discovery Channel and C4 called Zapped,on the interaction of electricity with the human body and the brain.
Mark's entry into science was somewhat circuitous and he has previously worked as an extrusionist in a plastics factory, an attack dog trainer in Israel, a researcher on board a ‘flying doctor’ plane in the outback of Australia and a climber in South America.