c h r i s t o p h e r r i l e y
b i o g r a p h y
Writer, broadcaster and film maker Dr Christopher Riley has worked in the field of public engagement in science for over fifteen years.
He gained his doctorate from Imperial College, University of London in 1995 and began reporting for the BBC Radio Science unit the same year.
He moved to BBC television in 1997 to work as series researcher for their landmark series The Planets. He co-presented the BBC's 1999 total eclipse coverage and their 30th anniversary celebrations of Apollo 11 - Moon Landings Live the same year.
In 2000 he fronted the BBC Knowledge six part cosmology series Journeys In Time and Space. The following year he worked briefly on the Sky at Night, co-presented BBC2's monthly astronomy magazine show Final Frontier, and produced and presented the corporation's coverage of the 2001 African Eclipse, the BBC's first live web cast.
In 2003 he co-presented the BBC / Open University's All Night Star Party live from the Isaac Newton Telescopes on La Palma for BBC2. He is the author of more than thirty articles and books on astronomy and planetary science.
Chris was a founding scientist of the UK's National Science Line and is a consultant to Britain's Centre for Science Education, the British Council's Science Communication outreach program, the Ideas Foundation and the innovative education communications company GovEd. He is a guest lecturer on the Science Communication M.Sc., at Imperial College, University of London and a senior visiting fellow at the University of Lincoln's Department of Media Production. He lectured at the The University of Leicester's bi-annual UK Space School between 2000 and 2005 when he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in recognition of his endeavours in public engagement in astronomy.
Chris was a pioneer of web journalism, reporting for the BBC's first online news service, covering the British Association Science conference in 1996 - TW@BA. He continues to work at the forefront of the communications revolution as the founder and managing director of a new media production company called the attic room and the online film archive footagevault.
Behind the camera Chris has produced and directed on over one hundred programmes for the BBC. He made more than fifty films for the corporation's flagship science and technology show Tomorrow's World and went on to direct on their long running 'Secret Lives' strand and the first series of the BBC1 prime time show Best Inventions. In 2002 he produced and directed on BBC2's Science at Christmas mini-series Can't Get Enough before joining Impossible Pictures during 2003-2004, where he produced the BBC's blockbuster space drama-documentary series Space Odyssey, winner of the UK’s prestigious Sir Arthur Clarke Award.
The following year Chris returned to the BBC to produce and direct on the sixth series of Rough Science for BBC2, set in the Colorado Rockies.
He acted as the science advisor for the BBC’s recent remakes of the science fiction classics “Quatermass” in 2005 and “A for Andromeda” in 2006. That summer he wrote and presented the BBC Radio 4 astronomy series “The Cosmic Hunters” broadcast in September.
He joined DOX Productions at the end of 2005 to produce and direct on the feature documentary film In the Shadow of the Moon, winner of the 2007 Sundance World Cinema Audience Documentary award. The film opened in cinemas across the US and Europe during the autumn of that year and received it's TV network premier the following year, when it was nominated for two Grierson awards.
During 2008 his TV work included acting as an executive producer and director of DOX Productions REMI award winning six part series 'Moon Machines' for Discovery Science Channel, and as a consultant on Dangerous Films', six part Discovery Channel series, 'When we Left Earth'. On the web he produced and directed the innovative Bebo hosted teen-drama series Jeffery's Story and in August he participated in the third Science Foo Camp at the Googleplex, outside San Francisco.
His latest book - the new Haynes guide: Apollo 11 an owner's workshop manual is published this month for the 40th Anniversary of the first Moon landing. As part of the Moon Shot anniversary celebrations Chris has also written a series of essays about Apollo for BBC News online. He is the producer of the remastered and restored 2009 director's cut of NASA's Apollo 11 documentary Moonwalk One and will introduce the film at this year's Glastonbury festival.
During his career he has flown at twice the speed of sound on Concorde, floated weightless for 30 minutes on board both Russian and European Space Agency parabolic flights and has ridden on two of NASA's astrobiology missions; chasing the Leonid meteor showers around the world for BBC News.