Zbigniew Szydlo
historyZbigniew (or Andrew) Szydlo was born in England to Polish parents, where he attended Latymer Upper School, and then Imperial College and University College London. He currently teaches chemistry at Highgate School in North London. He holds MSc, PhD, DIC, ACGI, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, of which he is also a CChem.
An expert on the history of alchemy, Szydlo is the author of the standard work on the Polish alchemist,Michael Sendivogius. The thesis of his work, "Water that does not wet hands: The Alchemy of Michael Sendivogius"Published by the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1994., which argues that Sendivogius’ rôle in the discovery of oxygen has not received proper attention, has won widespread acceptance within the academic community. He advanced this argument in a leading article for History Today, co-authored with Richard Brzezinski, entitled A New Light on Alchemy.Vol. 47, issue 1: »http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=13491&amid=13491 This is a subject to which he hopes to devote further attention.
He frequently gives public lectures in the United Kingdom on topics including the History of Chemistry. Recent performances at Cambridge University »http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/12836.htm, Durham University »http://www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents/conference/alldetails.cfm?evid=103439, University College London»http://www.chem.ucl.ac.uk/schools/events.html and the Royal Institution»http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?action=displayEvent&id=837 have received much acclaim: writing in the journal Chemistry & Industry on Szydlo’s performance at Cambridge, John Wilkins remarked that ‘Dr Szydlo exceeded all expectations; he raced through vast tracts of practical chemistry, history, alchemy, the discovery of oxygen, the internal combustion engine, and on occasion, introduced music too. His lecture was interspersed with flashes, bangs, colour changes, detonations and eruptions, keeping the 350-strong crowd on the edge of their seats throughout.’»https://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/192259074.html This lively, multi-media approach characterises Szydlo’s performances, which include experiments drawn from a wide repertory, ranging from the chemistry of colour to pyrotechnics and high explosives. He also lectures regularly at secondary schools throughout the United Kingdom, and has remarked that he often finds the audiences he addresses at under-privileged schools the most inspiring.Personal communication with the author.
In recent years, he has appeared in five television serials: as a chemistry teacher in That'll Teach 'em (Channel 4, 2006)»http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813905 and Sorcerer's Apprentice (CBBC, 2007)»http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007t0wc/episodes/2007.html,as a science historian in Absolute Zero (BBC4, 2007)»http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/absolute-zero.shtmlas a chemist in Generals at War (National Geographic, 2009), and in "Big, Bigger, Biggest" (Channel 5, 2009).
Music is a passion, and he is an accomplished player of instruments including the violin, piano, bugle and accordion. Other interests include Polish dancing, automobile engineering, meteorology, beekeeping, photography and mycology. Amongst his pupils, he is renowned for lessons which incorporate unusual and spectacular experiments, and for bursts of eccentricity such as tasting pure ethanol, and cooling hot drinks with liquid nitrogen before tasting them. His lecture and television performances reflect his broad cultural interests and distinctive character.