Ehsan Masood is a writer and journalist based in London, writing mainly about science, international development and the politics of the Muslim world. He writes a fortnightly column for the online magazine Opendemocracy.net and is a consultant to the Science and Development Network. He also writes for Prospect magazine and the journal Nature. He was formerly Director of Communications for LEAD International and before that Opinion Editor of New Scientist magazine. He graduated in physics from Portsmouth Polytechnic and holds a postgraduate diploma in science communication from Birkbeck, University of London.