Dr. Stephen Juan

Dr. Stephen Juan is Australia's "Wizard of Odds". His books in the Odd Books series are The Odd Body (1995), The Odd Brain (1998), The Odd Body 2 (2000), The Odd Sex (2001), The Essential Odd Body (2006) which is the combined volume of The Odd Body 1 and 2 with additional material, and The Odd Body 3 (2007). His various books have been translated into 24 languages. Stephen is a man of wide-ranging interests. He is a scientist, educator, journalist, and author. As he says, 'I'm incompetent, but in many, many fields. I never let not knowing about a subject stop me from talking about it.' Stephen is an anthropologist by training and one of Australia's best-known communicators of human research. Lively, humorous, and popular as a speaker (and one who never takes himself too seriously), Stephen definitely goes against the stereotype of the dull, pompous, and arcane academic. He combines wit, charm, a lively sense of humour, encyclopaedic knowledge, and a passionate enthusiasm for explaining all about who and what we are, how we got that way, and where we're going from here. Stephen appears regularly on TV, radio, and is often quoted in the press on any and all topics having to do with being a human being. He appears in regular radio segments on radio stations in Australia, Canada, and the U.S. He was a regular analyst on the Australian version of the T.V. reality show, 'Big Brother 2'. In 2006, he made 11 appearances on just one TV program in Australia, 'Today Tonight' on the Seven Network. Also in 2006, the Discovery Channel based an hour program devoted to the brain on The Odd Brain. Stephen's internationally syndicated column appears in newspapers all over the world. Stephen thinks of himself as an 'explainer' of human behaviour---and of all things human. Born in California, Stephen holds B.A, M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1978, Stephen has taught in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney where he is the Ashley Montagu Fellow for the Public Understanding of Human Sciences. Stephen has been honoured in Australia and overseas for his writing and other public education work. The American Medical Association and the U.S. National Association of Physician Broadcasters are among the international organizations that have honoured him.

HOW STEPHEN CAME TO AUSTRALIA: Stephen jokes that he immigrated to Australia 'by accident'. Thinking he was visiting his Uncle Sydney in Austria, Stephen landed in Sydney, Australia. Immediately hailed as 'a genius in my own mind', Stephen was hired by the University of Sydney as the first and last lecturer in the 'hire directly off the street' campaign. Stephen’s first act as university teacher was to initiate an 'open door' policy towards students. This was partly out of necessity since the door had been stolen. [By the way, the University requests its return, no questions asked.]

EARLY DAYS AT SYDNEY UNIVERSITY:In order to keep students from being bored during lectures, Stephen quickly learned how to dodge fruit, vegetables, paper aeroplanes and other missiles thrown from the audience and also how to 'pepper' his lectures with fascinating bits and pieces of information from diverse academic subjects. Anthropology, psychology, biology, history, sociology, medicine, and many other fields were fair game. This body of collected material has formed the basis of several of Stephen's books.

STEPHEN’S QUOTES:
'Only through education, especially the education of the young, can we hope to move civilization forward---or at least keep it from moving backward.'

'How do you move civilizations forward? Gandhi was right. 'First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight with you. And then you win.'

'If it's about human beings, I want to know all about. And when I do, I want to tell everyone else about it. Hopefully, they'll want to listen. But even if they don't, I'll probably try to tell them anyway.'

'Humans are so fascinating! Has there ever been a creature as fascinating? What we are, what makes us tick (in all our diversity), and what we learn from research every day makes living today so incredibly interesting.'

'I want to teach students how to be teachers---to spread the word about science, real knowledge, and how and where to get it---knowledge that will enrapture you and change your life---and how to have fun along the way.'

'If we knew more about how our bodies work, maybe we'd take better care of them.'