Frank Burnet obituary

Other lives: Science communicator determined to make complex ideas intelligible, engaging and fun

My stepfather, Frank Burnet, who has died aged 77, was a pioneering science communicator — part academic, part showman — and was instrumental in building up the field of science communication in its early days, founded the institutions to support it and inspired thousands of scientists to make complex science intelligible, engaging and fun.

Frank grew up with a love of science – his sister fondly recalled him as a child “chasing me round the garden with a needle, trying to get some of my blood to mix with pond water for his new microscope”. That mischief and curiosity was a hallmark of Frank throughout his life.

Born in Edinburgh, Frank was the eldest of the three children of Bunty (Margaret, nee Jardine) and Bobbie (Robert) Burnet, who were both teachers. After leaving Glenalmond college, he studied biochemistry at the University of St Andrews, graduating with a first, then spent a formative year in Sudan, acting for an English‑language television channel.

Back in the UK, Frank undertook doctoral studies in neuroendocrinology at New College, Oxford. He also performed with the Oxford University Dramatic Society alongside his friend Mel Smith. The dilemma of scientist or performer was resolved in typical Frank style: he chose both.

In 1977 he joined the University of Kent as a lecturer in biochemistry. There, his booming voice and flair for theatre spilled beyond the lecture hall, most memorably when he appeared on Noel Edmonds’s Late, Late Breakfast Show in the 1980s, winning the title “Loudest Man in Britain” by shouting a complex scientific discovery that ended in a triumphant “Eurekkkaaaa!”

Alongside his academic work, he began finding inventive ways to bring science to new audiences – on buses, in pubs, in petrol stations and through music. A Royal Society media fellowship in 1988 helped turn this “side hustle” into a life’s mission.

In 1996 he moved to Bristol, where he founded the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England, and in 2002 was appointed UWE’s professor of science communication – the first in the UK.

In 2000 he helped establish the Cheltenham science festival, later becoming its founding co‑director with Kathy Sykes. Together they launched FameLab in 2005, the three‑minute science‑storytelling challenge now celebrated in 35 countries across all five continents and involving more than 40,000 young scientists, many of whom credit him with inspiring a generation of communicators.

Frank retired from academia in 2009 but never from the work of connecting people to science. His big personality, warmth, and gift for making others believe in themselves meant many felt empowered to take the lead in science communication too.

He is survived by his third wife, Gaie (nee Rowland), my mother, whom he married in 1992; four daughters, Maija, Gudrun, Katriina and Riikka, from his second marriage, to Hilkka Helevuo, which ended in divorce; two stepdaughters, Nid and me; eight grandchildren, Jenson, Oscar, George, Emelda, Emily, Alex, Ethan and Joshua; and by his siblings, David and Mags.