Professor Wade Allison
Emeritus Professor of Physics, Department of Physics
Wade Allison is Emeritus Professor of Physics at Oxford and is active writing, lecturing and discussing energy in schools, universities and political meetings, home and abroad, including why energy and its two laws are important to everybody in society; explaining the pros and cons of weather dependent energy, fossil fuels and nuclear energy; energy density, storage and transmission; and animals’ fear of energy.
About
Professor Allison taught widely in Physics at Oxford for 40 years including courses in electromagnetism, medical physics, relativity and nuclear physics and was a Tutorial Fellow at Keble College, Oxford (1976-2008), and continues lecturing on energy, environment and society at home and abroad.
His publications include Fundamental Physics for Probing and Imaging (2006), Nuclear is for Life (2015), The Flight of a Relativistic Charge in Matter (2023). His book, Radiation and Reason: the Impact of Science on a Culture of Fear (2009), addresses misconceptions about radiation and nuclear energy. It attracted considerable attention around the world, especially following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, after which it was published in Japanese and Chinese. Since then he has been to Japan several times to lecture and to visit teachers, community leaders, doctors and evacuees in the region affected by the accident.
Professor Allison studied Natural Science, Physics and Maths at Trinity College, Cambridge and for a DPhil in Particle Physics at Oxford/CERN.
See also: Supporters of Nuclear Energy.
Expertise
- The physical, biological and social effects of radiation and nuclear energy
- Sources of energy and their environmental impact
- The physics of relativistic charges in materials and its use in particle physics experiments
Selected publications
- Three short essays on Energy and the Future (2025)
- Establishing Confidence in Nuclear Energy: A Study of 120 Years of Evidence and 80 Years of Myth 1 (2024)
- Society and Nuclear Energy: What Is the Role for Radiological Protection? (2024)
- The Flight of a Relativistic Charge in Matter (2023)
- Energy Decisions (2023)
- Nature, Energy and Society - A Scientific Study of the Options Facing Civilisation Today (2022)
- Nuclear is for Life. A Cultural Revolution (2015)
- Radiation and Reason The Impact of Science on a Culture of Fear (2011)
- Fundamental Physics for Probing and Imaging (2006)
Media experience
Professor Allison has experience of working with the media.
Videos
- Why radiation is safe & all nations should embrace nuclear technology
- Energy Impact Center (Ep. 203 - Wade Allison)
- Radiation and Reason: Why radiation at modest dose rates is quite harmless and current radiation safety regulations are flawed
- Interview in Tokyo with Professor Ikeda