Forensic anthropologist Dame Professor Sue Black is set to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures this winter. The Christmas Lectures are the world's leading science lectures for young people, and have been held since 1825. Previous speakers include Nobel Prize winners William and Lawrence Bragg, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan and Dame Nancy Rothwell. In her lectures, Dame Black will explore existential questions about what makes us who we are, and how others can identify us, receiving input from lawyers, detectives, pathologists and even dog handlers.
A Sunday Times best-selling author, Dame Black is currently President of St John's College, Oxford and the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. Her two books, All That Remains: A Life in Death and Written in Bone – Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind, were published by Doubleday in 2018 and 2020 to critical acclaim.
The Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution will be broadcast on BBC Four between Christmas and the New Year. More information on how to watch the Lectures can be found here.