Profile

I am a Scot, but have lived in Switzerland for 40 years and now also have Swiss citizenship. I have always been good at science but terrible at languages, so it is strange that I am now in a country with 4 national languages – none of which is English (although most people speak it well).

I love to go into the mountains and, as I live beside a river, regularly swim in it during summer. I also love scuba diving – which Switzerland is not good for. However, I can often combine holiday with work and have been able to dive in many countries around the world.

As a hobby, I write science fiction and recently had my 8th novel published (a list is here – https://www.mckinleyconsulting.ch/after-hours. These near future stories often show possible impacts of climate change (more about this in a free e.book – https://www.twbpress.com/globalwarming.html)

I work as a consultant in the rather exotic field of radioactive waste disposal – which is much more varied than you might expect. Although I am a chemist, I have been involved in projects involving engineering, geology, biology and all kinds of environmental sciences. This work also takes me to all kinds of strange places – in countries like Jordan, Brazil and the Philippines.

I do a lot of work in Japan, so was especially busy after the Fukushima accident. Very strangely, the contamination we were measuring in Fukushima was very similar to that I measured in West Scotland during my PhD in the late 1970s!

Recently a special interest has been in looking at the risks associated with climate change and also the options to reduce its impact.

I have mainly work from home in Switzerland  but, under normal conditions, I work a lot with clients in other countries. My main clients are in Japan, but I also travel a lot to the UK and Sweden.

My day is very different depending on where I am. In Switzerland I spend a lot of time working at a computer, but in Japan I may be working in an office together with my Japanese colleagues or teaching at a university.