Nicholas Dunbar studied physics in the UK at Manchester and Cambridge and finally in the US at Harvard University, where he gained a Master's degree in earth and planetary sciences. During this period his interests ranged from quantum mechanics and black holes to evolution and the history of global climate change. His teachers included Stephen Hawking at Cambridge and Stephen Jay Gould at Harvard.
In 1990, Dunbar decided to leave academia. He spent the next few years working in feature films and television, in a wide range of capacities. In 1996, after launching the television production company Flicker Films, a chance encounter with some old Harvard friends set him on a new path of finance and science writing, focusing on the derivatives industry. In 1998, he joined Risk magazine as technical editor.