Robyn WilliamsAOFAA (born 30 January 1944) is a British/Australian science journalist and broadcaster who has hosted The Science ShowonABC Radio National (RN) since 1975, and created Ockham's Razor in 1984.
Williams was born on 30 January 1944[1][2]inWales[3]orHigh Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.[2][a] His father, Gwyn, a Welshman, has been variously reported as a union executive and journalist,[2] or a coalminer who also studied engineering.[3] His mother, Ray (nee Davis), was Jewish, from London's East End, and worked as a translator.[2]
Williams attended various schools in London, including Tooting Bec Grammar, as well as spending a few years at a German language school in Vienna, Austria.[2]
He joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Science Unit in 1972 where, after several years in background production and interviewing for the Insight program, he hosted Innovations in early 1974,[4]Investigations (2-hour format) from 6 November 1974. [5] In 1975 he began hosting The Science Show, a one-hour science-based radio interview show. At one time it was the most popular radio show on Radio 2 (Radio National's former name), and it is one of the longest-running radio shows in Australia and the world.[3]
Ockham's Razor followed in 1984, with Williams introducing a leading scientist or personality who then expounds from a prepared text on a topic of their choice, with a view to making a subject simple and accessible to the public, hence the title relating to the famous statement on parsimonybyWilliam of Ockham. In Conversation commenced in 1997, with Williams interviewing the personality.[3]
In 1977, Williams gave an impassioned speech to the ABC Staff Association against ABC management's quiescence in the face of budget cuts and political interference. He said that a UK proposal that the government appoint one third of BBC board members had been publicly opposed by BBC management but that the ABC chairman acted as if he headed an organisation rivalling the BBC. Following his speech the meeting voted unanimously that it had no confidence in the ABC chair, John Norgard.[6]
1988: Honorary Member of the Order of Australia (AM), 26 January, "For service to science, particularly in the fields of media and education"[10]
2001: Centenary Medal, 1 January, "For outstanding service in science communication"[11]
2020: Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), 26 January, "For distinguished service to science as a journalist, radio presenter and author, and to education"[7]
And Now For Something Completely Different (1995), autobiography, written when he was a Reuters Fellow at Oxford.[12] The title refers to a popular radio interview he did with John Cleese on the topic of psychiatry.[14]
Williams met Pamela Traylor when in Australia for the first time, and they married on 10 June 1966 before both moving back to the UK, where he studied science. They had two children.[2]
He is a good friend of fellow ABC presenter, Norman Swan, a qualified medical doctor, who intervened to help save his life when he suffered a cardiac arrest in 1988.[3]
As of 2022[update] Williams is in a long-term relationship with Jonica Newby,[3] a former presenter on ABC Television's Catalyst science journalism program. Williams underwent chemotherapy for colorectal cancer in 2014 and 2015; at one point he was hospitalised for five weeks but continued to make The Science Show from his hospital bed.[19]
