An Interview With Theoretical Zombiologist Doctor Austin

I was recently lucky enough to attend Sci Fi Weekender 5 as a guest, where amongst the usual suspects (Sean Page, David Moody & Wayne Simmons) I met Dr Austin and saw his amazing show on how to battle zombies. Dr Austin kindly agreed to be interviewed for Buy Zombie so I here is what we chatted about on the phone.

Doctor Austin is a Theoretical Zombiologist at the University of Glasgow and Head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies. His theories on Zombieism have been published worldwide in publications as diverse as The Times, The Guardian (Las Vegas), The Daily Mail, Playboy (Russia), The Zombie Times and The Metro. Doctor Austin has appeared on the BBC, Sirius XM (USA), RTE Television (Ireland) and is the author of Zombie Science 1Z, a guidebook to the science of the undead, first published in 2010. Since beginning his public engagement work Doctor Austin has lectured to over 40,000 people across the world.

I started by asking Dr Austin what exactly is a Theoretical Zombiologist.

Dr Austin explained that as Zombies don’t actually exist, he is a Theoretical Zombiologist, otherwise, his audience might get just a bit panicked! In simple terms, a TZ (for short) examines what a zombie could be like based on genuine science. Using scientific techniques and research Dr Austin built up his knowledge base on what could cause a zombie to be created and how a zombie would react.

As you can imagine, there are no ‘test subjects’ so hopefully people are not normally exposed to diseases. It wouldn’t be the ‘done thing’ to expose a person to a virus such as Ebola or something similarily fatal just to see what would happen. (In retrospect I wondered if Dr Austin was psychic at this point given the later outbreak in recent weeks)

As part of his ongoing work, Dr Austin delivers a series of lectures. Within the lectures he tries to have a bit of fun and add a bit of comedy to the show. The lectures often include interactive demonstrations. However, it includes all real science and real diseases, which are discussed. Hopefully the audience doesnt know they’re learning! For certain, says Dr Austin ” We don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

I asked just How long Dr Austin has been a Zombie Theorologist. He was appointed as Head of the Zombie Institute in 1996. Only in 2010 he started doing doing public demonstrations and delivered lectures (the then named Zombie Science 1Z) to over 10,000 in just 10 months. Funding had been provided by The Wellcome Trust in the form of a Public Engagement Grant. It was, he says, a very strange thing indeed to get a grant for on the surface, however, his lectures are meant to inform and inspire and bring people into science engagement. The hook levels are for everybody. This was not a show for scientists as they know it all already. The idea was to make the science accessible and fun.

We then talked about the possibility of an actual Zombie Apocalypse. How could it happen? There are lots of infectious agents around; viruses, bacterium, prions, (such as, Mad Cow Disease), being but a few. Rogue prions produce tiny holes in the brain, appearing visually rather like Swiss cheese. Symptoms include loss of personality, an inability to speak, instead uttering a moaning sound and an uncoordinated walk – sound familiar? Zombieism traits have many similarities to existing illnesses, but not all of the symptoms in one. A possibility would be to combine together the required symptoms to form what we normally see as a ‘Zombie’ on TV and on film. It could in fact be any one of the many infectious agents out there that ultimately causes the apocalypse. As Austin says, “we like to keep our options open.” You could literally cherry pick symptoms from each illness in existence to make a zombie disease but hopefully people wouldn’t do that!

I mentioned David Moody, a popular and highly regarded zombie writer. Moody, on a personal level has always said the best advice he could give if the apocalypse struck would be to lock yourself away from people. The good doctor has confirmed we have yet to see any disease that would have the impact you see in films. It would require near 100% infection – even with conditions such as Spanish flu, Bird flu and SARS the rate has not been anywhere near that high and we have as a society been very good at coping with them. If you do end up in the middle of a zombie outbreak however, Dr Austin tends to agree with Mr Moody; stay away from population centres. Be careful about getting involved in a seige situation. Waiting inside your house indefinitely the psychological impact of having zombies outside your door 24/7 could break anyone.
Finally I asked about Dr Austin’s preferred weapon of choice to battle zombies.

And he’s right when he says “knowledge would be the greatest weapon.” However, his Tennis racket crossbow, as demonstrated in his show, is a bloody good alternative If having to fight for life on a day to day basis! The arrows are easy to retrieve (think Daryl in TWD) there’s not a lot of infectious material, you can practice a lot, quietly, so as not to alert the zombies and best if all, there’s a friendly message; recycling and reusing.

I’d like to thank Dr Austin for his valuable time and an enjoyable chat.

You can find out more about The Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies, based at the University of Glasgow and Dr Austin at: www.zombiescience.co.uk & facebook.com/zombiescience & @ZombieScience1Z