Nigel Henbest

Prof Nigel Henbest, BSc, MSci (Cantab), DSc (Hon), FRAS (born 6 May 1951) is a British astronomer, born in Manchester and educated in Northern Ireland and at Leicester University, where he studied physics, chemistry and astronomy. He did postgraduate research at the University of Cambridge before becoming a freelance science writer. He has written over 50 books and over 1,000 articles on astronomy and space and these have been translated into 27 languages, many of them in collaboration with Heather Couper. Previously he has been Astronomy Consultant to New Scientist magazine, editor of the Journal of the British Astronomical Association and media consultant to the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Along with Couper and Stuart Carter, director of the Channel 4 series The Stars, he set up Pioneer Productions where he produced award-winning television programmes and series. Asteroid 3795 Nigel is named after him.

Nigel Henbest was born in West Didsbury, Manchester, where he lived for the first five years of his life. His father, Bernard Henbest, was an organic chemist and his mother, Rosalind (née James) a psychiatrist. In 1958, his father was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at Queen’s University, Belfast, and Henbest was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution until the age of 18.