A world renowned sports scientist is to give a talk about his work with top athletes and celebrities at an event being hosted by Glasgow Science Centre this month.

Professor Greg Whyte, who has worked with David Walliams, Davina McCall and Eddie Izzard among others, will speak on the theme of "ordinary people achieve the impossible" in feats of sporting endurance at the fifth annual A Question of Science Quiz on October 22.

To date Prof Whyte, who is based at Liverpool John Moores University, has led 19 projects for Comic Relief and Sport Relief helping raise more than £33 million for charity.

"It will be a fun and light-hearted examination of how you achieve what is the seemingly impossible with ordinary people," said Prof Whyte. "I will talk a bit about the elite sport of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games as well as focusing on Comic Relief."

With the quiz taking place on the eve of the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Prof Whyte, who himself competed in two Olympics as a modern pentathlete, will touch on the far-reaching effects of sport.

It is his belief that "unless it is a spherical ball around a grass pitch" – referring to the mass popularity of football – exposure to sport is still largely limited among the general public.

Prof Whyte equally isn't fond of the oft banded around term "legacy" that is used to describe the link between major sporting events and the long-term health or wider social benefits afterwards.

"Legacy is one of those words that is over-used and it is probably more about inspiration," he said. "The great thing about something like the World Gymnastics Championships and the Commonwealth Games in Scotland is that it engages the public in sports they don't generally get to see.

"With the Commonwealth Games last year and the Olympic Games in 2012, legacy is actually not that well proven. What is well proven is the inspiration that it provides for people and the breadth of sports they get to experience outside that which they normally would."

Radio presenter and comedian Des Clarke will take on the role as quiz master for a series of science-themed multiple-choice brain teasers.

Last year's winners was the Chemical Engineering department at Strathclyde University.

Past speakers include Brian Cox, Sir Robert Winston and Dara O Briain.

For more information, visit glasgowsciencecentre.org