Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki AM (born 1948), often referred to as Dr Karl,[2] is an Australian science communicator and populariser,[2] who is known as an author and a science commentator on Australian radio, television, and podcasts.
Kruszelnicki is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow in the Science Foundation for Physics at the School of Physics, University of Sydney.
Kruszelnicki was awarded a Master of Biomedical Engineering degree at the University of New South Wales. He completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees at Sydney University in 1986.
After primary school, Kruszelnicki’s first job was ditch digger in the Wollongong suburb of Dapto.[11] He also worked as a filmmaker, car mechanic, TV weatherman and as roadie for Slim Dusty, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.[12] While working as a taxi driver in Sydney, he was beaten unconscious after picking up a passenger trying to escape a group of men.[1]
Kruszelnicki presented the first series of Quantum (replaced by Catalyst) in 1985. As a science communicator and presenter, he appears on the Seven Network’s Weekend Sunrise and on ABC TV. From early 2008 to 2010 he co-hosted a TV series called Sleek Geeks with Adam Spencer.
Kruszelnicki presented a program on ABC TV in January 2025 titled Dr Karl’s How Things Work.[16]
Kruszelnicki does a number of weekly radio shows and podcasts. His hour-long show on ABC radio station Triple J has been going on in one form or another since 1981; this weekly science talkback show, Science with Dr Karl, is broadcast on Thursday mornings from 11:00 am to midday and attracts up to 300,000 listeners; it is also available as a podcast.[17]
Kruszelnicki also often helps with other science and education Triple J promotions such as the Sleek Geek Week roadshow with Adam Spencer and Caroline Pegram. He and Adam Spencer released the Sleek Geeks podcast regularly until December 2015.[18] Also, Since 2016, he has hosted the podcast Shirtloads of Science.[19][20]
For many years, until March 2020, Kruszelnicki appeared on a live weekly late-night link-up on BBC Radio 5 Live‘s Up All Night, usually with Rhod Sharp, answering science questions.[21] In 2017, he hosted Dr. Karl’s Outrageous Acts of Science on Discovery Channel (Australia).[22]
Kruszelnicki writes a regular column for Australian Geographic magazine, called ‘Need to Know’, which is republished as a blog on the magazine’s website.[23] He has also written for the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Good Weekend magazine.[24]
In 1981, he appeared on an Australian radio documentary about death and near-death experiences that aired on the ABC, And When I Die, Will I Be Dead?[25] It was adapted into a book in 1987.
Politics
Kruszelnicki was an unsuccessful candidate for the Australian Senate in the 2007 Australian federal election. He was placed number two on the Climate Change Coalition ticket in New South Wales.[27]
In 2015, Kruszelnicki appeared in an Australian Government advertising campaign for the recently published intergenerational report. He had previously agreed to do the campaign, believing it would be a “non-political, bipartisan, independent report.” After its publication, however, he backed away from the campaign, describing it as “flawed”. “How can you possibly have a report that looks at the next 40 years and doesn’t mention climate change? It should have acknowledged that climate change is real and we cause it and it will be messy.”