Matt Ridley is a scientist, ex-banker, journalist, businessman, and an expert on evolution. Earning his BA and DPhil degrees from Oxford University, Matt has served as a former science and technology editor for The Economist magazine. To this day, he continues to write regularly for The Times (London) and the Wall Street Journal and founded the Mind and Matter column in the WSJ in 2010. With expertise in both finance and science, Ridley is an author with a wide range of talents. He has written many provocative books on evolution, genetics, and society. His best-known books are The Red Queen (1993), Genome (1999), and The Rational Optimist (2010), which have sold over a million copies altogether and have been translated into 31 languages worldwide, winning multiple awards. Matt is married to the neuroscientist Professor Anya Hurlbert. They have two children and live in Northumberland in the north of England.