Ehsan Masood

Born in London, his father Hassan Masood worked in actuarial science and his mother Shamsa Masood is a writer of short fiction in Urdu.

He went to schools in New York, Karachi and London; studied applied physics at Portsmouth Polytechnic and science communication at Birkbeck, University of London.

He worked for the journal Nature[1][2] as a writer from 1995 to 1999 and again as acting chief commissioning editor in 2008/2009. He has also worked as Opinion Editor of New Scientist and communications director at LEAD International.[3]

Masood has also written for Prospect magazine and openDemocracy.net, as well as The Times, The Guardian and Le Monde. He is a former director of communications of Leadership for Environment and Development and also advises the British Council on science and on cultural relations.

Ehsan Masood was a regular contributor to Home Planet, an environmental affairs programme on BBC Radio 4 in the UK.

He is chair of trustees of The Muslim Institute.[4] This is a UK-based charity that supports critical thinking among British Muslims.

In January 2015, Masood was nominated for Services to Science and Engineering at the British Muslim Awards.[5]

His latest book is The Great Invention: The Story of GDP and the Making and Unmaking of the Modern World, which will be published in the US on 7 June 2016 by Pegasus.

Ehsan Masood's previous book is Science and Islam: A History.[6] This tells the story of how science developed during Islam's imperial period from 800 to 1500. It is the official tie-in to a three-part documentary series on BBC Television presented by Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey.

His other publications include:

• Our Shared Europe This is a report for a major new British Council programme of activities aimed at reducing mistrust between non-Muslim and Muslim communities.
• Dry: Life Without Water, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press 2006 ISBN 0-674-02224-6 (editor with Daniel Schaffer)
• How Do You Know? Reading Ziauddin Sardar on Islam, Science and Cultural Relations, London: Pluto Press 2006 ISBN 0-7453-2514-9 (editor)
• British Muslims: Media Guide, published by the British Council in association with the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, 2006. Download a copy of British Muslims: Media Guide here
• The GM Debate: Who Decides? Analysing Decision-making on Genetically Modified Crops in Developing Countries, London: Panos 2005

• In February 2009, Ehsan Masood presented a three-part series for BBC Radio 4 entitled Islam and Science
• Ehsan Masood is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's environmental affairs programme Home Planet
• Islam's reformers, Prospect article by Ehsan Masood republished on Wanabehuman.
• Science, Development, Faith Ehsan's Open Democracy columns
• Islam and Science Special issue of Nature, November 2006[7]
• Ehsan Masood talks about Dry: Life Without Water on Start the Week on BBC Radio 4, 29 May 2006
• Televised discussion on climate security at Carleton University, Canada with John Ashton, Simon Dalby and hosted by Ken Rockburn of CPAC's Talk Politics show, February 2007