Meet the author- Dr Karl

Listen to the recording of Dr Karl discussing his memoir A Periodic Tale: My Sciencey Memoir, supplemented by audiovisual images of his remarkable life on the Experience ANU SoundCloud channel.

Dr Karl will be discussing his memoir A Periodic Tale: My Sciencey Memoir, supplemented by audiovisual images of his remarkable life. 

How did a shy Polish immigrant kid - Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki - evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl? The only child of Holocaust survivors who fled to Australia in 1950, Karl has always forged his own destiny in an idiosyncratic way. Before he became one of the world's favourite scientific storytellers, he ambled through a convoluted cacophony of a career.

In the 1960s, he got his start as a physicist at the Port Kembla Steelworks and promptly joined the Steel Industries Auto Club, racing modified rally cars on Wollongong's deserted back roads. In the 1970s, he entered his self-described 'drug-crazed hippie years', making a living as a long-haired taxi driver. After he applied to be a NASA astronaut in the 1980s and 'failed', he ended up live broadcasting the first space shuttle launch on Triple J instead. Unexpectedly, that blasted off his media career, and from there it was a stratospheric rise from radio to TV, books, podcasts and much more. 

Karl's story teaches us that you don't have to know all the answers, as long as you ask the right questions. He has wandered down more than a dozen career paths, from being a TV weatherman (really) to a professional four-wheel drive tester in the outback (really) to being a roadie for Bo Diddley (really). All of these seemingly random experiences have helped create the Karl we know today.

In this long-awaited memoir, you will learn that it's okay to not take a linear path through life, and that by following our curiosities and our passions, we can bend the universe to our liking.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM just loves science to pieces, and has been spreading the word in print, on TV and radio and online for more than 30 years. The author of 48 books, Dr Karl is a lifetime student with degrees in physics and mathematics, biomedical engineering, medicine and surgery. He has worked as a physicist, labourer, roadie for bands, car mechanic, filmmaker, biomedical engineer, taxi driver, TV weatherman, and medical doctor at the Children's Hospital in Sydney. Since 1995, Dr Karl has been the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney. In 2019 he was awarded the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularisation of Science, previous recipients of which include Margaret Mead, David Attenborough, Bertrand Russell and David Suzuki. 

The vote of thanks will be given by Dr Bobby Cerini,  Deputy Director and General Manager of Science and Learning at Questacon. Bobby holds a PhD in science communication, with research into the influence and impact of contemporary science heroes (ANU). She has contributed to many successful STEM initiatives, including National Science Week.

Books will be available for purchase before and after the event in the Street Theatre foyer.

The As You like It Café bar will be open for drinks pre & post conversation. 
Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm, and available again after the event.

 
Tickets: This is a free event but bookings are essential

This event is in association with the Harry Hartog Bookshop and The Street Theatre.