Liz Bonnin - Biochemist, Wild Animal Biologist, Presenter of Trinidadian descent

Liz Bonnin - Biochemist, Wild Animal Biologist, Presenter of Trinidadian descent

Liz was born in France to a French father and Trinidadian mother of Indian Portuguese descent, and moved to Ireland when she was nine years old. She was especially interested in biology and chemistry at school, which led her to study biochemistry at University. She then took a year out to travel and sing in a band amongst other things, and ended up presenting the IRMA Music Awards for RTE in Ireland. One thing led to another and Liz continued her stint as a presenter, which included filming a documentary about tigers in Pench National Park in India and moving to London to present Channel 4’s breakfast show ‘Rise’ and BBC1′s cult music show ‘Top of the Pops’.

Liz then decided that it was time to return to her science roots and in 2008 she completed a Masters in Wild Animal Biology with the Zoological Society of London, a course which involved setting up a research project and travelling to Nepal to study tigers. Following her Masters Liz decided to try her hand at presenting her passion: science. They say timing is everything and just as she completed her final exam she was hired by the BBC to co-present ‘Bang Goes the Theory’, BBC1’s cutting edge science magazine show. Since then, Liz has worked on several other programmes, including BBC2’s ‘Museum of Life’, as series about the Natural History Museum in London;  popular British wildlife strands  ‘Springwatch’ and ‘Autumnwatch’;  the hugely successful ‘Stargazing Live’ astronomy series; a Horizon episode on the Venus Transit of 2012 and BBC1’s ‘Super Smart Animals’, a series about animal intelligence that saw her travel the length and breadth of the globe to investigate animal cognitive abilities.

Her latest projects include a geology series for Discovery Science, where she investigated the science of volcanoes, earthquakes and ice ages amongst other things, and a series on Siberian tigers for BBC2, tracking the world’s largest big cat during the harsh winter of the Russian Far East.

Liz has always been passionate about big cats but her love of tigers is now deeply rooted as a result of her studies and she supports several organisations that work towards the conservation of wild tigers. She has also given several talks about her tiger research and the plight of the tiger. Liz will bother anyone who will listen about the wonders of the planet, having experienced so many incredible places on her travels. Part of the reason she continues to communicate science on television is down to her passion for reawakening the public’s curiosity about the world around them.  She has also enjoyed hosting science related awards ceremonies, including the UK Young Scientist and Engineer Awards and the IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award.

More about Liz Bonnin

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