The Hay 30 – Helen CZERSKI

Helen Czerski was born in Manchester. She is a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department at University College London. As a physicist she studies the bubbles underneath breaking waves in the open ocean to understand their effects on weather and climate.

Helen regularly presents BBC programmes on physics, the ocean and the atmosphere – recent series include Colour: The Spectrum of Science, Orbit, Operation Iceberg, Super Senses, Dara O’Briain’s Science Club, as well as programmes on bubbles, the sun and our weather. She is also a columnist for Focus magazine, shortlisted for PPA columnist of the year in 2014, and has written numerous articles for national newspapers.
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The Hay 30 is made possible by the generous support of the CASE foundation.

All Events for this artist

Hay Festival 2024

BBC Radio 4: Rare Earth

Hay Festival 2024, 

Environmental journalist Tom Heap and ocean scientist Helen Czerski are joined by a panel of guests, to delve deep into the biggest environmental issues facing us today. They explore the issues, find out about some of latest innovations and research, and celebrate the wonder of our natural world.

Hay Festival 2024

Helen Czerski and Helen Scales talk to Andy Fryers

Hidden Depths in the Ocean

Hay Festival 2024, 

Dive deep with physicist Helen Czerski and marine biologist Helen Scales as they speak to the Festival’s Sustainability Director Andy Fryers about our vast oceans. Czerski’s The Blue Machine illuminates the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it. Scales’ What the Wild Sea Can Be is an optimistic view of the future of the ocean, looking at how fish populations and giant kelp and seagrass forests are being regenerated and expanded.

Hay Festival 2017

Helen Czerski

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life

Hay Festival 2017, 

What is it that helps both scorpions and cyclists to survive? What do raw eggs and gyroscopes have in common? And why does it matter? The physicist explores the patterns and connections that illustrate the grandest theories in the smallest everyday objects and experience, linking what makes popcorn pop to Antarctic winds, coffee stains to blood tests or ketchup bottles to aliens in space. Every thread you pull in the fabric of daily life shows you something new about the intricate patterns of our world.