Hello! I’m Sumit.

I write, think and dream about science, technology and the future. My studio, Alternity, investigates under-explored possibilities through alternative histories, social experiments and applied speculation.

Trained as a physicist at Imperial College, where I earned a first-class B.Sc., I subsequently turned my hand to journalism. I started out in arts criticism but spent most of the next fifteen years writing about business and technology in London and New York, with an emphasis on financial engineering and risk management.

In 2008, I joined New Scientist, the world’s most popular science weekly, where I served as editor-in-chief until 2017. In addition to the day job, I was editor-in-chief of Arc, an acclaimed digital publication dedicated to the future, between 2012 and 2014; and in 2016 I served as founding creative director for New Scientist Live, the world’s most exciting festival of ideas and discovery.

I am now a Sloan Fellow of London Business School, a Visiting Research Fellow in the Computing department at Goldsmiths, a Trustee of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and of Cove Park artists’ residency centre, a Fellow of the RSA, the founder of Chantepleure Productions and a founding member of the Bishopsgate Experimental Noise Theatre, among various other roles and responsibilities.

My writing credits include publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the New Musical Express, and I’ve spoken about how innovation and discovery change the world to audiences ranging from Oxbridge dons to schoolchildren and from fashionistas to investment bankers. I’ve served as a judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, the Wellcome Book Prize, the Royal Television Society Programme Awards and the Costa Book Awards.

I live, work and fail to sleep in London.

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Photo by David Stock