Dr Karl Kruszelnicki | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

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Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

Honorary Doctorate (February 2016)

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in February 2016 in recognition of his lifelong dedication to learning, and his stellar contribution to enlightening and inspiring the Australian community in all matters of science.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki {‘crucial-nitski’} is Australia’s most well-known and best-loved science commentator. He is also an extraordinary and talented individual. With several degrees under his belt, in Science and Mathematics, Astrophysics, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine and Surgery; and a string of honorary awards, including a prestigious Ig Nobel prize from Harvard in 2002, Australian Father of the Year in 2003, Member of the Order of Australia in 2006, Australian Skeptic of the Year in 2007, and National Living Treasure in 2012, the list doesn’t end there. In 2014, Dr Karl was listed Australia’s 9th most trusted person by Readers Digest. He has an asteroid named after him–18412 Kruszelnicki; and since 1995 he has been the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow (in Physics) at Sydney University.


Dr Karl believes that “Knowledge is Power”. On top of his impressive list of qualifications, he is an adept and inspiring communicator. He is ‘an answer looking for a question’. He has done many television appearances and also has a weekly talk-back show on radio stations across Australia. For more than 30 years, Dr Karl has been bringing his vast knowledge to the masses. He answers questions and busts ‘myth-conceptions’ across any medium available. He speaks, tweets, writes, blogs, and posts on any topic – cybercrime, global warming, tattoos, and belly button fluff, to name just a few.


Dr Karl is also a distinguished author. To date, he has written and published 38 books, along with numerous lecture series. He is a regular columnist for newspapers like The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and contributes science stories for magazines such as Australian Geographic and National Geographic Kids. This is perhaps his most notable contribution to humanity – the sharing of knowledge.


For students, Dr Karl is an ideal role model. He has an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a dedication to lifelong learning. He is proof that you can follow your dreams to create your own destiny – but along the way you’ll need to work hard to support your pursuit of happiness. To fund his studies, Dr Karl worked across a diverse range of industries, in as many different roles, from taxi driver, clocking up more than 250,000km, to making and selling T-shirts. His experience also includes filmmaker, car mechanic, road manager, physicist, reporter, weather man and public speaker.