I was born in Stoke, roughly in the centre of the UK, and have always lived around here. I went to schools in Betley and Newcastle-under-Lyme and then, after 2 or 3 years messing about, but learning much, eventually dropped into a job in sewage, so to speak. My then employers, the North West Water Authority, kindly sent me off to learn some more chemistry at the local polytechnic through their day release course. This helped me more than they will ever realise and more than I can ever thank them for.
Amongst other things, I began to learn:
- how to appreciate science at the microverse level and how to think like a scientist
- what makes the world go around - literally
- how to get on with people and to listen carefully when bright people take time to explain things to you that they understand far better than you do
- how to write and research things thoroughly
- ...and how to treat sewage, of course
Suddenly, 15 years had gone by and, from working by myself in a tiny laboratory doing lots of chemistry, through managing a couple of laboratories containing other chemists who were doing much more complex chemistry, via a stint out in the real world looking after various industrial dischargers large and small followed by a year or two in wastewater operations management, I found myself applying for, and then being offered, a job as an analytical chemistry lecturer at the same polytechnic where I'd done all of that science learning, studying and PhD researching. Part time PhD research is not for the faint-hearted but I had some great supervisors and fellow research degree travellers to ease the burden.
Our polytechnic moved up in the world in 1991 and became a new university, and so since 1989 I've been working at what is now called Staffordshire University,
originally teaching chemistry although [like all good jobs]
things have changed over time.
My work home is still in the Faculty of Sciences
and, over the last decade or so, I've contributed to a number of the postgraduate awards in the
environmental and sustainability area - you can find more information
about these here.
More recently, I've produced some online CPD courses in conjunction with CIWEM about all sorts of topics. We cover wastewater treatment and drinking water treatment, anaerobic digestion, constructed wetlands, environmental management systems, building sustainable businesses and more. Click on this link for the details. It just shows you that sewage-wise...what goes around, comes around.
For more information about work you can look under the Work tab over on the left of the page
For what it's worth, I enjoy music (you can find out more under Music beneath the Resources tab to get some ideas; reading and writing [tabs under Resources for both of those too], good company, fine wine, nice food, lots of sunshine, oceans, snowy mountains (from a distance), some time to myself and people with a sense of humour and a nice line in self-deprecation.
Thanks for reading this far, why not look around the rest of the site for more interesting stuff. |
