Geoff Watts

Geoff Watts describes himself as a scientist who dropped out. After a stint in cancer research at St Mary's Hospital he moved to the Institute of Ophthalmology, the research arm of Moorfields Eye Hospital. He spent three years working on the effects of lasers on the eye and wrote a doctoral thesis - but then decided that laboratory research could cope without him.

Journalism offered a way of keeping up with science but without the tedium of hours spent gazing down a microscope. He joined the doctors' magazine World Medicine, and freelanced for a variety of other publications.

During this time he began broadcasting, first on Radio 4's Science Now, then as sole presenter of the prize-winning Medicine Now - which ran for 17 years. He also presented countless other features and series on science and medicine for Radios 3 and 4, and for the World Service. He now presents the Radio 4 science programme Leading Edge. The rest of his time is given over to print journalism, training and lecturing.

He keeps a foot in the academic world. In 1999 he was appointed to membership of the Government's Human Genetics Commission, and he was recently elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.