After Dinner Speakers: Heather Couper, Virginia Leng, Tipper Gore

Heather Couper is a leading international communicator on astronomy and space. She studied astrophysics at Leicester and Oxford Universities and went on to run the Greenwich Planetarium. She later became President of the British Astronomical Association and Gresham Professor of Astronomy. After presenting two TV series for Channel 4, Heather and two colleagues set up Pioneer Productions - now one of the leading factual TV companies in the UK. She was the producer of Universe, and of the international award-winning programme Electric Skies - the classic film on lightning. She has recently left Pioneer to concentrate on a wider range of ventures and divides her time between writing (she is the author and co-author of more than 30 books) and broadcasting (she has presented many radio and television programmes including, most recently, a profile of Stephen Hawking for BBC Television). In 2003 she will be presenting two major documentaries about Mars for BBC Radio 4. Her most recent books, all written in collaboration with Nigel Henbest are SPACE ENCYCLOPEDIA (1999), UNIVERSE (1999), EXTREME UNIVERSE (2001) and MARS: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE RED PLANET (2001