Profile

Candidate CV questions (extra)

• Education:

  I went to a traditional grammar school in Yorkshire. We had to choose science or arts . It is a silly choice to give a 12 year old but I chose science anyway. I was OK at maths, physics, biology and chemistry so ended up with two scholarships to go to Manchester university. It was really interesting there with lots of physics and girls and I was lucky to meet my future wife. I have been with her ever since.

   

• Qualifications:

  I had about a dozen O levels, six A and S levels and ended up with a university degree. I was too busy to finish my postgraduate degree but it didn’t matter as much then as it does now, when so many more folk are going to university than then. I have ended up as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, even though most of what I do is about the sea. Physics is everywhere.

  If you are young when you read this, please do not be impressed by these things. What matters most in your life is what you do next, not what you did in the past.

   

• Work History:

  After I graduated I lost interest in nuclear physics and went to learn about oceanography in the University of Wales. I measured how the big lake at Bala works. Then I got a job as a physical oceanographer in Oban in the west of Scotland. There I met lots of people who were interested in fish, sea plants and ecology and I learned how to help them with the waves, tides and currents.

  I found that almost anyone can enjoy life learning about the sea. A good friend did not even have an A level but become an expert on the Atlantic. I looked at how lochs work, how fish farms affect the sea, how water flows from the Arctic ocean to the Atlantic, how to find submarines, how an oil refinery affected the sea in Oman, how the Atlantic is changing, what happens in Norwegian fjords, how storms affect inlets. We always needed engineers, electronic experts, computer programmers, navigators, and practical folk who could make things work and be safe in difficult conditions. It was really interesting working with them all.

  When I left Oban I started work at the age of 51 in charge of the group of scientists who measured pollution around Scotland’s coast. The sea is sometimes protected by laws, so it was a great job that allowed me to use what I had learned about the sea to help protect it from harmful alteration and dangers.

  At 61 I worked part time as a marine scientist and advised anyone who needed my experience. I appeared in public enquiries, explaining the sea to lawyers and helping engineers with their plans for the coast.

  You learn a lot about people and government in these jobs so my last job was to spend more than ten years in the university of the Highlands and Islands.

• Current Job:

  I am retired now. I use my computer to look at what other people have measured in the sea and I help them understand what it means.  I look at ideas folk have put forward for work in the sea and I see if they make sense, or are worthwhile. Sometimes their ideas are very expensive, so it is important to think hard and to be very fair. I still earn money for this work, and I meet interesting people, so I am really grateful for my original physics education.

• Employer:

  I work for a Scottish Innovation Centre, which tries to help people in universities to do things that are useful to fish farmers. There is almost no end to that job. We need folk who are interested in fish, fish diseases, parasites, genetics, feeding fish, water movements and all the fancy engineering that is needed to grow the huge amounts of fish that eventually come to our plates.