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Gareth Mitchell

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Gareth Mitchell
Gareth Mitchell in Tallinn (2017)
Born (1970-08-15) 15 August 1970 (age 54)[1]
Eastleigh, England
NationalityWelsh
Occupation(s)Technology broadcaster, science communicator
Gareth Mitchell's voice
recorded January 2014
WebsiteTwitter, Facebook (official)

Gareth Mitchell is a Welsh technology journalist, lecturer and former broadcast engineer.[2]

Early life

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Mitchell was born Gareth James Mitchell[3] in Eastleigh, England to a Welsh father,[4] Colin Mitchell.[5] He spent his childhood in Montgomeryshire,[6] Powys, Wales.[7] When Gareth was seven, his father lit up a bulb with a closed circuit, and that sparked his interest in science.[8]

He was a member of the computer society at school (Welshpool High School) and participated in bellringing[9] and organ playing[10] at his local church. As an undergraduate studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London, Mitchell joined campus radio working behind the scenes, but saw that "[t]he people who seemed to be having all the good fun were the creative types in the studios."[11] Because of that, after getting his engineering degree and relevant work, he took up an MSc in Science Communication, also at Imperial.[12]

Broadcasting

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Mitchell joined the BBC during the mid-1990s, starting his career as a broadcast engineer. His initial dream was to be part of Tomorrow's World,[13] BBC's flagship technology TV programme, but a visit to a radio studio at Bush House got him obsessed about radio journalism.[14][failed verification] Mitchell eventually decided to trade climbing TV and radio transmitter towers for science and technology journalism. He had worked for Radio Netherlands on science programmes.[citation needed]

His first hosting role on the BBC was for the youth science program, The Lab.[15][failed verification][16] Occasionally, he had also presented Science in Action and The Science Hour on the BBC World Service, and reported on the television programme Click.[17]

He presented on the BBC most notably as the host of Digital Planet (previously known as Click[18] and Go Digital[19][20][21]) a BBC radio programme broadcast worldwide on the BBC World Service with Bill Thompson until its end in March 2023.[2] During his time on the show he interviewed people such as Jimmy Wales,[22] Stephen Fry,[23] Professor Dame Wendy Hall,[24] Martyn Ware,[25] Feargal Sharkey,[26] Jean Michel Jarre[27] and Vint Cerf.[28] From time to time, he is a stand-in presenter for BBC Inside Science on BBC Radio 4. Additionally, Mitchell wrote for the Q&A section of BBC (Science) Focus Magazine and hosted the Q&A podcast[29] from 2008 to 2017.

After the end of Digital Planet, in April 2023, Mitchell and Thompson returned with a new technology podcast, The Gareth and BillCast[30] as well as Mitchell presenting ""Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast"[31]

Lecturing

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Mitchell has lectured at Imperial College London since 1998 in broadcast and written journalism on the Science Communication and Science Media Production MSc programmes [32][33] since 2000[34] and 2002 respectively.[35] He also presents the Imperial College Podcast. The key event leading to his appointment as a radio tutor was a bet in a pub over a Guardian job advertisement for that role.[36][37]

He emceed TEDx Imperial.[38] He has attended the World Economic Forum[39] and has hosted workshops, discussion panels and conferences on science and technology.[40][41][42]

At Imperial he has cofounded, and now runs, the "Science Media Diversity Scholarship".[43] The award covers tuition fees and London living costs for a year, for a student from a minority ethnic group. The Science Media Diversity Scholar also completes an internship at one of the sponsoring television production companies.[citation needed]

Facilitator

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As well as broadcasting and lecturing Mitchell is an host and facilitator at big events with clients such as the European Commission, OECD,[44][45] World Economic Forum,[46] Wellcome Trust, and Nesta.[citation needed]

Personal life

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Apart from the bells and the organ, other instruments Mitchell can play are the piano and keyboard.[citation needed][47] He rides motorcycles, has taken flying lessons, and has been a licensed amateur radio operator since August 2019.[48][3] with his call sign M7GJM. He continues to use his engineering skills by for example has developing a way to provide the required signal needed for the studio clocks[37][49] he'd bought at an auction for items from Bush House, the BBC World Service's former headquarters, he did this by making a Master clock from a microcontroller called an Arduino.

References

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  1. ^ "40th birthday tweet by @GarethM". 15 August 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b "BBC World Service - Click". BBC. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  3. ^ a b "M7GJM". Facebook. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  4. ^ Gareth Mitchell, Bill Thompson (14 January 2014). "BBC Click Radio". bbc.co.uk (Podcast). BBC. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  5. ^ "Local Man and the Radio 4 toilet drama!". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  6. ^ "how funny I was brought up in Montgomeryshire". Facebook. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  7. ^ "[Grew up in] Powys; BBC Science Focus podcast, December 2013". Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  8. ^ "BBC World Service - Over to You, How the Podcast is Changing Listening Habits". 21 April 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  9. ^ "BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Drones for Good". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  10. ^ "I learned the church organ for a while". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  11. ^ "BBC Digital Planet (Gareth's bio)". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  12. ^ Amer, Pakinam (2020). "How to transition from the lab to full-time science communicator". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01676-z. PMID 34083804. S2CID 226196072. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  13. ^ "Short Science Podcast 010 : Elizabeth Hauke and Georgie Gould : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  14. ^ "Bye Bye Bush House Boo". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  15. ^ "Host Bios & Pictures: BBC World Service". apmstations.org. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  16. ^ "The Lab - BBC World Service Archive". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  17. ^ "BBC News - Meet the Click Team". Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  18. ^ "BBC - The Editors: Click and Digital Planet merge". Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  19. ^ "Go Digital - BBC World Service Archive Project". Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  20. ^ "Go Digital: Your digital world". 2 November 2005. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  21. ^ "BBC NEWS - Technology - BBC launches Digital Planet". 27 March 2006. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  22. ^ "BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Jimmy Wales on bots and blockages". BBC. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  23. ^ "BBC World Service - Tech Life: 'I sacrificed my soul' - a Facebook moderator's story, Stephen Fry's Digital Life". BBC. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  24. ^ "BBC World Service - Tech Life: 'I sacrificed my soul' - a Facebook moderator's story, 20/10/2009". BBC. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  25. ^ "BBC World Service - Tech Life: 'I sacrificed my soul' - a Facebook moderator's story, A Holocaust Survivor's Digital Doppelgänger". BBC. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  26. ^ "BBC World Service - Tech Life: 'I sacrificed my soul' - a Facebook moderator's story, 11/11/2008". BBC. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  27. ^ "BBC World Service - Tech Life: 'I sacrificed my soul' - a Facebook moderator's story, Data Ethics Monitoring". BBC. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  28. ^ "Digital planet - Open University Digital Archive". www.open.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  29. ^ "Science Focus Podcast". Science Focus - BBC Focus Magazine. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  30. ^ "The Gareth and BillCast". garethandbillcast.com. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  31. ^ "Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast - Reviews - Podcast Rex". podcastrex.com. 19 November 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  32. ^ "People/Contact, Science Communication Unit, Imperial College London". Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  33. ^ "Mr Gareth Mitchell". Imperial College London. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  34. ^ "I joined the Science Communication Unit in 1998 part time and became full time in 2000". Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  35. ^ "I joined the Science Communication Group academic staff in 1998 part time and became full time in 2002". Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  36. ^ "Gareth being interviewed by the 'Speaking of Science' podcast". 7 January 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  37. ^ a b "Part 2 of Gareth's interview at 'Scientists not the Science'". 7 March 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  38. ^ Douglas Heaven. "Gareth Mitchell - mouthpiece". Mouthpiece.douglasheaven.com. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  39. ^ "Gareth Mitchell - World Economic Forum". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  40. ^ "After a few years working in broadcast and telecoms engineering, he gave it all up and returned to Imperial to pursue the MSc in Science Communication". Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  41. ^ "Plenary Panel, Wealth of Networks 2008 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  42. ^ "FutureFest". Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  43. ^ "Funding". Imperial College London. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  44. ^ Development, OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and (20 May 2019), OECD FORUM 2019, retrieved 5 May 2023
  45. ^ Development, OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and (31 May 2016), OECD 2016 Forum: Lunch Debate: The Algorithmic Society, retrieved 5 May 2023
  46. ^ "Gareth Mitchell". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  47. ^ Newbill, Phyllis Leary (22 March 2005). Instructional Strategies to Improve Women's Attitudes toward Science (PhD thesis). Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. pp. 160–162. hdl:10919/27000. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  48. ^ "Interview: Online Learning & Exam - Essex Ham". Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  49. ^ "Bush House clock". YouTube. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
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