Professor Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, where he researches an eclectic range of topics including luck, self-help, illusion and persuasion. This work has been published in the world’s leading academic journals and cited in over 20 introductory textbooks.
Richard has also written several best-selling books that have been translated into over 30 languages, including The Luck Factor, Quirkology, and 59 Seconds. His psychology-based YouTube videos have received over 90 million views and he has given keynote addresses to organisations across the world, including The Royal Society, The Swiss Economic Forum, and Google.
Richard is the most followed British psychologist on Twitter and was recently listed in the Independent On Sunday’s top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live.  Over 2 million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments and he has acted as a creative consultant to Derren Brown, The MythBusters, CBS’s The Mentalist, Heston Blumenthal, Nick Cave and Jeremy Deller.Richard is an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association and was the 2010 Guest Director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival.  He began his working life as a professional magician and is a member of The Inner Magic Circle.
He is based in both London and Edinburgh, likes sushi, is fond of dogs, and finds Arrested Development very funny.