Michael Banks

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Dr Michael George Banks is a British science journalist.

He was born in Oldham, United Kingdom on 16th March 1982. He completed his BSc (Hons) in Physics at Loughborough University, after spending a year at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, in Stuttgart, Germany.

After his Bachelors of Science, he returned to Germany, to study for a PhD in experimental condensed matter physics in the Group of A. Simon. During his PhD he primarily worked on neutron scattering on magnetic materials, with a particular emphasis on one dimensional frustrated magnets.

As well as in science he was also active in a field of research called Scientometrics, which looks at ways of quantitatively measuring the impact of scientists, journals, research institutes and countries. He published a paper entitled "an extension of the Hirsch index: indexing scientific topics and compounds," which aimed to give a quantitative impact of research fields in chemistry and physics, called the h-b index. He also published articles on doing a PhD abroad and on disseminating scientific research.

Since October 2007, after finishing his PhD, he started to work on Physics World magazine published by the Institute of Physics, in the capacity of News Editor.