Mark Biddiss

Mark Biddiss, PhD (affectionately known as "Dr Mark" to his clients), now in semi-retirement, is a qualified Cognitive-Behavioural Coach and Mentor and writer/author. He was formerly a gas-man, turned college lecturer and private tutor, turned space scientist, turned independent science and maths education consultant and adviser, presenter, staff trainer and author.

In the first part of his "Dr Mark" career, his aim was to make learning and thinking about science and maths fun, engaging, inspiring and even exciting. His particular focus was on teaching creative problem-solving, reasoning and critical questioning and thinking skills generally through his novel approach with science, maths and even philosophy for children. During this period, he worked with numerous UK Local Education Authorities on a number of education projects, with thousands of schools and colleges, tens of thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of school children. Although he worked with pupils right across the age 5 to 18 age-range, he specialised in working with mostly Primary (5-11) and early Secondary/High school pupils (11-14) and their teachers.

He was also a regular invited speaker and trainer at numerous national and international educational conference events in the UK and some overseas - including UK-wide TES/TSL Education Conferences as well as International Schools in Amsterdam, Madrid and Santiago, Chile. Between 1995 and 2023, Mark was also regularly invited onto BBC and independent live radio and TV news programmes to answer questions about science and comment on educational stories in the news. He was recognised by many as one of the UK's leading educational experts.

He wrote sixteen books (four commissioned) of his novel science and maths ideas, primarily for teachers and parents, though two for children. Most are still available as Amazon Kindle e-books.

Withdrawing from his school-based science and maths work in 2018 into semi-retirement, Dr Mark then moved on to explore and research his deep and personal interest into the practical, everyday applications of the evidence-based, cognitive and behavioural sciences. He has a particular interest in helping people achieve "personal change" in their everyday lives, meeting their fundamental human needs, through changes in their thinking and behaviour.

Although not a medical doctor or psychiatrist, Dr Mark's credentials for writing his more recent "Diet Tricks" book were based partly on his own personal experiences of successfully losing weight using the tools described, and partly on his deep interest, research and formal training into the practical applications of the evidence-based cognitive and behavioural sciences to everyday living generally, including losing weight. "Diet Tricks" (along with sections of the supporting "Why Losing Weight is Hard to Do" book) was Dr Mark’s first book focusing solely on the practical applications of the cognitive and behavioural sciences in everyday life. Others are planned.

Dr Mark has formal university-level training, qualifications and practical experience in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Coaching and Mentoring, along with Classic-Code and New-Code Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

He is also a doctor in the academic sense, being a trained scientist with a First Class Honours Degree and a PhD from University College London, England, UK, obtained as a mature student back in the early-mid 1990s.

He has been known professionally by the name "Dr Mark" since the late 1990s, in his education consultancy, training and presentation work, in his science and maths books, CDs and DVDs for teachers, and on his "Dr Mark Science" YouTube science videos.

Mark is currently working on research into the science or psychology of "Magical Thinking" in peoples lives - including its role in consciosuness and sensory perception - and how it might be used to enrich and enhance our lives; a sort of "Magic for Muggles" approach. This project is partly autobiographical.

Originally from London, England, “Dr Mark” now lives with his wife in Bridge of Allan in Scotland, next to the beautiful, mountainous Trossachs National Park.

Footnote: amusingly, one evidently disgurntled Amazon reviewer - predictably anonymous and who didn't even buy anything - described Dr Mark as "...a quack fantacist..." - Dr Mark thought it was an hilarious insult, though is still trying to fathom it out! For the record, all of the above bio is absolutely true, so no fantasy there!