Profile
Martin Coath
New chats this week - excellent!
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About Me:
I live in Cornwall with my wife (and my cat) – I have worked as a programmer and researcher for climate change, education, and neuroscience projects – in fact all sorts of strange stuff 😲 I also love to play music.
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I play guitar and violin – any style more or less – and I often accept professional bookings as well as ‘just for fun’ gigs.
I was a competitive Ultimate Frisbee player for a long time. I am now retired from competition and just throw discs for fun.
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My pronouns are:
He/Him
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My Work:
I have worked as a programmer with a lot of big international teams on Climate Change, Neuroscience, and Neuromorphic Engineering projects.
I also love to play music (violin and guitar) and get involved public engagement projects (like this one) which I consider to be an essential part of my work.
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In my most recent major research project I wrote code to analyse Arctic climate predictions, and designed and built apps to help people use the results. This is a real challenge because it isn’t just maths and coding – it means thinking about the effects that climate change might have on the Arctic, and specifically on tourism. We were working as a small part of a major EU funded research project Blue Action. The project involves people from all over the world and you can find out a bit more by clicking here.
On a fact-finding tour of ski resorts in arctic Lapland with other members of the Blue Action team.
Science Communication has always formed a huge part of my scientific life. I am a regular at science festivals, science cafes; I have developed projects with the Ri, the Wellcome Trust, various museums, the British Council, the Edinburgh Festival; and I have worked with students of all ages as ‘Scientist In Residence’ at a large school in Plymouth.
Talking to medical students in Chisinau (the capital of Moldova) about hearing and how we process sound in our brains.
I was part of ‘I’m Scientist Get me Out of Here’ when it first started and was kept in until the end to win my zone. I was also the winner of the first ever live version of the competition.
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My Typical Day:
I am one of these weird people who likes to work early in the morning. I read a lot of papers, write notes on what I am going to do for my various projects, meet with and talk to my colleagues (including a lot of on-line meetings even before Covid!), and write and test computer code.
There are many opportunities to get out and talk about science in public, in schools, at festivals and in the media. So I travel a lot, this involves a good deal of planning and preparing talks, demonstrations and workshops.
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I do spend a lot of my time reading. Other people’s results and opinions are an essential part of research, even if you disagree with everything they say. I also like to read what people are doing way outside my own area. Many researchers fall in to the trap of only reading what they think is directly important to them, and they miss loads of great ideas that would make their work better.
At a workshop during the Neuromorphic Engineering meeting in Capocaccia, Sardinia.
Writing computer code is a creative process that I have always enjoyed. Playing with ideas, making them work, building models from data, seeing how it all fits together in many different ways – it is like a vast construction kit, where the design of each piece, and the way all the pieces fit together, is decided by you and the results are satisfying and beautiful to look at.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I did get a small prize for winning my zone in a different version of I’m a Scientist years ago and I spent it on making a nice portable demo for science roadshows.
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Education:
The whole of life is an education. I have learned just as much from working, travelling, and sharing houses with odd people (!) as I have from attending classes. But I guess this section should be about schools and universities.
My school was a large Comprehensive on a housing estate in the outskirts of Plymouth. It fell out of favour with local parents and was bulldozed in the 90s, years after I left. Even the school that replaced and absorbed it has now gone! I did A Levels in Chemistry Biology and Maths – and didn’t do very well in any of them!
Then I did a degree at the University of Essex (Chemistry) and, much later on, two more degrees at Plymouth University (AI and Neuroscience).
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Qualifications:
School:
I have 8 or 9 (can’t remember) GCSEs (‘O’ Levels as they used to be called) and 3 ‘A’ Levels.Universities:
BSc (Hons.), MSc (Distinction), PhD -
Work History:
Lecturer, Workshop Leader, and Researcher for Universities:
Lapland (Finland), Plymouth, Insubria (Italy), Oxford, Reading, Nottingham, Essex.Other Institutions:
Danish Meteorological Institute.As science communicator:
I have worked for the Ri, the Wellcome Trust, Science Museum, British Council, and others – really a *long* list!Lecturer for FE:
Oxford and Nottingham. -
Current Job:
Associate Lecturer – Doctoral College – University of Plymouth
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Employer:
Much of what I do now is freelance, self employed, short contract work. But I am still happy to be on the staff at the Doctoral College at Plymouth University.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Curious, serious, open-minded
What did you want to be after you left school?
I honestly had no idea. It doesn't matter too much if you have no idea, but it is interesting to give it some thought!
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Only minor stuff. My school had a purpose built music department with sound-proof practice rooms. Occasionally (!) I took my guitar to the music block and locked myself in rather than go to lessons. I was caught in the end of course.
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
My work is highly varied and doesn't look like just one job - I get all the variety I need. But I guess I could play music full time.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I listen to a lot of great tracks by loads of different people. My friends are always recommending stuff for me to listen to and usually I end up liking it.
What's your favourite food?
Lebanese cookery is great!
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I would want to be smarter, more energetic, and less serious.
Tell us a joke.
A polar bear walks in to a bar and says “A pint of bitter and … … … … … … … … a packet of crisps please”. The guy who is serving asks him “Why the big pause?” “Because I’m a polar bear!”
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