Many diverse talents make our vision for Touch Press a reality. Our founding team brings together several renowned individuals—who collectively represent decades of successful experience in publishing, software development, media production and interaction design. Our strategic partners bring deep capabilities in a host of important areas. And as Touch Press develops, we look forward to our interactions with a growing circle of authors and new partners.
Theodore Gray
Theodore Gray is an award-winning software developer, author, and popularizer of science. Having started out in chemistry, he joined Stephen Wolfram in 1987 in the creation of Mathematica. Gray pioneered the concept of Mathematica notebooks—which serve as the main interface to Mathematica, and have made possible the creation of millions of interactive computable documents. Ever since the founding of Wolfram Research, Gray has guided its user interface strategy, and has been responsible for a sequence of major innovations.
Over the years Gray has developed an independent interest in science writing and in communicating the excitement and importance of science to a wide audience. He is a Contributing Editor at Popular Science magazine, and has authored its Gray Matter column since 2003. The How 2.0 section containing Gray's column won a National Magazine Award in 2005, and Gray's column is a finalist for its own National Magazine Award for 2010.
Gray is the author of Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do at Home–But Probably Shouldn’t, and of the best selling coffee table book The Elements, A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, now the groundbreaking first product of Touch Press. He is also the proprietor of periodictable.com and the creator of the iconic photographic periodic-table poster seen in universities, schools, museums, and on TV shows from MythBusters to Hannah Montana.
Max Whitby
Max Whitby is CEO of Touch Press. He studied philosophy at Oxford University and then joined the BBC where he produced numerous Horizon and NOVA documentaries. He was involved in the BBC's pioneering Interactive Television Unit and headed an early collaboration between the BBC and Apple. Subsequently he co-led a management buy-out of this BBC group, forming a media publishing company that achieved a successful IPO in 1995. In 2004 Whitby made the radical decision to train formally as a scientist, and completed a PhD in chemistry at Imperial College in London. For the past decade he has collaborated closely with Theodore Gray designing and building elaborate periodic table displays and installations around the world. Their first iPad title—The Elements—resulted from this partnership and has become a digital publishing phenomenon. The Elements has sold 250,000 copies and led to the formation of Touch Press in April 2010. He co-produced the landmark literary iPad title The Waste Land with Henry Volans from Faber. Whitby is widely travelled, having filmed for the BBC, PBS and other TV companies in over 30 countries, including six memorable weeks in North Korea. He has received four BAFTA nominations and two BAFTA awards. He is passionately interested in natural history and has personally filmed every British bird, butterfly and bumblebee species.
Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram has had a distinguished career as a scientist, author, inventor and enterpreneur. He is best known for creating Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha, and for authoring A New Kind of Science. Beginning in his teenage years, Wolfram made a number of discoveries in physics and cosmology. In the early 1980s his now-classic work on cellular automata helped launch the field of complexity theory. Then in 1986, Wolfram began the creation of Mathematica, founded Wolfram Research, and launched the first version of Mathematica.
Wolfram has served as CEO of Wolfram Research for more than two decades, and has provided the technical leadership that has made Mathematica the world's leading system for advanced computing. Recently, Wolfram has also been the creator of Wolfram|Alpha, the breakthrough computational knowledge engine released in 2009.
In addition to his work in technology and business, Wolfram is also a world-renowned scientist. Using Mathematica as his tool, Wolfram's groundbreaking studies of the computational universe led to his bestselling 2002 book A New Kind of Science, and to the launch of a vibrant new area of science.
Wolfram is the recipient of many awards for science, technology and business, including a 1981 MacArthur Fellowship. Wolfram has had a long commitment to publishing and communication. He been the author—and publisher—of two bestselling books, and for 25 years the publisher of a leading academic journal. His broad interests span many areas of science, technology and their history. The tools and methods that Wolfram has created have had a defining influence on the science and technology of the past three decades, and provide the foundations for even more dramatic developments to come.
John Cromie
John Cromie graduated from Trinity College Dublin with first class honours in Software and Electronics Engineering and went on to complete a research masters. He is a software and digital business professional with 20+ years of experience delivering successful projects on leading desktop, web and mobile platforms. He has completed several projects with the Apple QuickTime team and has authored a book in the QuickTime Developer series. Software architecture and cross-platform development are areas of special interest. John has developed extensively on the iPhone platform for his natural history business BirdGuides, and for other clients. He is a keen naturalist and is active in conservation and research in Ireland. Cromie currently serves as chairman of BirdWatch Ireland, the leading nature conservation charity in Ireland. He is based in County Donegal, Ireland.
Nick Mann
Nick Mann is one of the world's leading experts in virtual object photography. He has been the principal photographer for periodictable.com since 2005, photographing more element samples than anyone else in history. He has also been responsible for the development of several new techniques for capturing the essence of three-dimensional objects. In addition to his technical photography work, Mann is also an accomplished freelance photographer.
Richard Turnnidge
Since graduating with a master's in computer-related design from the Royal College of Art in London, Richard Turnnidge has pursued a career combining his passion for interaction, technology, and people. Starting at the pioneering MultiMedia Corporation (MMC), he spent seven years as a producer, working on CD-ROM titles, bespoke software applications, and public space exhibitions. Turnnidge then joined the Landmark Millennium project At-Bristol, with the responsibility of ensuring that all audiovisual, IT, and technology related exhibits, as well as management infrastructure, were commissioned and installed ready for 2000. He next joined the global design agency IDEO as a Senior Interaction Designer/Project Manager. During eight years with IDEO, Turnnidge worked with many well-known clients, specializing in the design and specification of technology projects entering production. Turnnidge brings software and technology projects from concept through detailed specification and into production, with a particular interest in designing interactions that are elegant and transparent.
Our Partners
Wolfram Alpha LLC
Bursting onto the world scene in 2009, Wolfram Alpha LLC is the creator of the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine, whose goal is to make the world's systematic knowledge immediately accessible and computable by anyone. Wolfram|Alpha represents a broad technology breakthrough that defines the whole new category of knowledge-based computing.
Wolfram Research
Founded in 1987, Wolfram Research is one of the world's most respected software companies. Having launched Mathematica in 1988, it has defined the progress of technical computing ever since, introducing a sequence of central innovations and making Mathematica the tool of choice for the world's leading universities, technical companies and R&D organizations.
ElementCollection.com
Element Collection is the venture behind periodictable.com, the definitive destination on the internet for anyone interested in the periodic table of elements. A core capability is ultra high quality turntable photography of physical objects. This black art is performed by Nick Mann, who with Theodore Gray is responsible for the half million plus individual images that have be used in the production of The Elements: A Visual Exploration. The company publishes and distributes a range of periodic table merchandise including posters, card decks and physical samples of the elements, as well as beautiful displays and installations.
Black Dog & Leventhal
Black Dog & Leventhal is a publisher of books you want to have, primarily illustrated books that also impart a tremendous amount of useful and interesting information. BD&L achieves wide distribution for its authors through a close partnership with the Workman Publishing Company and a partnership with Touch Press for the development of ebook titles. As the original publisher of Theodore Gray's two most recent books, Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do at Home–But Probably Shouldn’t, and The Elements, A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, BD&L has been instrumental in bringing a traditional publisher's expertise to the enterprise of defining the new world of ebooks.
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber is one of the last great independent publishing houses in London, with no fewer than twelve Nobel Laureates and six Booker Prize-winners among its authors.
Best known for its rich history of publishing poetry, Faber also publishes fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music books, as well as books for children. In 2006 the company was named Publisher of the Year.
University of Chicago Press
Founded in 1891, University of Chicago Press has embraced as its mission the obligation to disseminate scholarship of the highest standard and to publish serious works that promote education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. The Press seeks not only to advance scholarly conversation within and across traditional disciplines but also to help define new areas of knowledge and intellectual endeavor. The Press also recognizes the obligation to match the form of their publications to their readers' needs by pursuing innovations in print and non-print technologies.
RGB Research Ltd
RGB Research Ltd is a scientific research and communications business based in West London. The company offers specialist production expertise in projects involving chemistry and natural history. With its own laboratory, machine shop plus HD video shooting and editing facilities, RGB Research is uniquely placed to manage complex science media projects. Current work includes the design, fabrication and installation of large scale periodic table displays for companies, universities and institutions around the world. Previous projects have included a 3D theatrical show about Egyptian Mummies for the British Museum, a BAFTA award-winning multi-million dollar interactive project on DNA funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a video encyclopedia of human emotions for Cambridge University.
Skylark Associates
Skylark Associates is a specialist consultancy offering design and development expertise in interactive media-based software. In partnership with clients in the UK and US, Skylark has consistently delivered high quality software for a wide range of consumer titles on Mac, Windows and mobile platforms, particularly the iPhone and iPad. Skylark is responsible for the software behind the market-leading BirdGuides website, software and mobile apps for birdwatchers and natural history enthusiasts.