More about me
I grew up in a small town called Runcorn in the North West of England where I attended a local comprehensive. I could perhaps have studied any subject at university, but I chose to study Chemistry, which is at the heart of the natural sciences. I applied for and was awarded a place to read Chemistry at Herford College, Oxford and graduated from Oxford in 2002 after completing my MChem.
My next hop was east to Hertford’s sister college, Clare, at Cambridge University where I completed a PhD in protein folding and design.
After I was awarded my PhD, I moved back West and worked for three years at Oxford University as an academic researcher in the department of Biochemistry before working in industry. Some of the projects I worked on include developing nanocoatings for Motorola and Samsung and testing antibody-based medicines for Amgen, Roche, Stanford University and Novartis.
My past history wasn’t all work or science - participating in a variety of sports has played a large part in my life. I recently started kayaking on whitewater again after a break of a few decades doing other sports. I started canoeing when I was about fifteen, kayaking on Grade II-IV rapids on the rivers of North Wales and northern Scotland.
The first photo below is of me in the year before my GCSE exam (yes, I sat them too!) Here I am on the River Llugwy with some friends.
One of the reasons I took a break from kayaking was that I started to play college football at both Oxford and Cambridge. I served as vice-captain and later captain of the graduate team, getting promoted and reaching several cup finals on the way. I am on the furthest right on the photo below, taken with the Clare College football team just before we achieved promotion to the next division in the final game of the season.
Whilst at Cambridge I was also fortunate enough to win a gold medal in the Varsity shooting competition, which I obviously didn’t celebrate given that we beat my previous University that day! I am carrying too many injuries for competitive football now but still like to be active, so if I am not out kayaking, I can often be found on my bicycle gliding around North Oxfordshire.
In between playing sports and finishing my PhD, I found time to tutor Cambridge students in Biophysical and Biological Chemistry and work as an examiner for the BMAT exam with Cambridge Assessment. I greatly enjoyed tutoring my students at Cambridge and always said it would be something I would do again if I had the opportunity. I now have a young family in Banbury and I work full-time as a private tutor.
To contact me, please email me with your request details and I will reply even if I am fully-booked.