Matthew Chalmers finished a BSc in physics at Glasgow University in 1996 followed by a PhD in elementary particle physics, which involved spending two years at the European laboratory CERN near Geneva. After a short post-doc at CERN and a stint in quantitative finance based in Amsterdam, he did an MSc in science communication at Imperial College during which he worked at New Scientist. From 2002-2007 he was features editor of Physics World. Since January 2008 he has been freelance, specializing in high-energy physics. He also runs media training workshops for postgraduate students and skills courses for science journalists.