I initially started this blog, over 10 years ago now, to share insights in carrying out and managing research in science and technology (over 25 years). I aimed to cover both the technical and ‘trickier’ human aspects. Since then it’s diversified a bit to take into account widening personal interests and to keep it fresh.
When I look on the About pages of other blogs, I’m always interested in the background of writers so I thought I’d give some personal details here too.
Career-wise, I started out in academia (physics) and then, via a series of steps, morphed into senior management in a large research and development (R&D) organisation, before finally going freelance. I picked up different insights from each of these environments (university, government and commercial) and it’s illuminating to compare and contrast them.
In a bit more detail and in reverse chronological order, the main milestones are:
- Independent consultant and Fellow of the RSA (The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).
- Principal Consultant at QinetiQ in the UK specialising in collaborative research bids and projects. At the time, QinetiQ/DERA was the largest R&D organisation in Europe (over 10,000 staff).
- Research Fellow at the IBM Research Centre in Winchester UK focusing on data visualisation. This was my first big break from academia.
- Series of full-time research appointments at the universities of Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, Bonn and Dortmund. A highlight was co-organising the last conference that Prof Richard Feynman attended as a speaker.
I obtained my PhD in theoretical physics at Imperial College, London.
You can contact me via stepsandleaps@gmail.com
Steps & Leaps 