Dr Kat Arney

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media – a communications strategy and content agency working in the life sciences. She was a key part of the science communications team at Cancer Research UK for more than a decade, writing for the charity’s award-winning Science Update Blog, speaking to audiences up and down the country, and regularly commenting in national and international media channels about the latest discoveries.
Kat is an experienced and accomplished public speaker and media performer. She specialises in presenting complex topics in an engaging and witty way for a wide range of audiences of all ages, whether in person and online. Kat has also hosted high-profile events and panel discussions in venues including the Royal Society, the Royal Institution, the Dana Centre, NESTA’s FutureFest, FameLab and Dolly the Sheep’s 20th Birthday party in Edinburgh.
Kat holds a first class degree in natural sciences and a PhD in developmental genetics from Cambridge University, and is the author of three popular science books, Herding Hemingway’s Cats: Understanding how our genes work (Bloomsbury Sigma), How to Code a Human (Andre Deutsch) and Rebel Cell: Cancer, evolution and the science of life (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). Her writing has been published in a wide range of outlets including the Times Educational Supplement, BBC News Focus, the Daily Mail, Wired, BBC Online, The Guardian, New Scientist and more.
Kat hosts the Genetics Unzipped podcast, and has fronted several BBC Radio 4 science documentaries as well as the critically acclaimed series Ingenious, looking at the stories in our genes, and Did the Victorians Ruin the World? with her sister, science comedian Helen Arney.

Testimonials

“The highlight was hearing from Kat Arney – she was really engaging and had lots of personal experience to bring.”
Attendee, Association of Medical Research Charities communications workshop
“A big thank you for holding the evening together so well yesterday – it was really great, and lots of people said afterwards how interesting they’d found everything.”
Susan Watts, Medical Research Council Suffrage Science Awards
“Kat, thank you so much for being such an amazing compère – you made my job a lot easier and added immense value to the whole festival experience.”
Josh McNorton, NESTA FutureFest

Showreel

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