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| I have been a freelance writer and photographer specialising in science and the environment since 1996. My route from research student to photojournalist was somewhat tortuous, but none the worse for that - I picked up a lot of valuable experience on the way. It's summarised here: | ||
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Curriculum Vitae (synoptic)
Writing and journalismI've had a lifelong fascination with science, and especially biology. I am intrigued by the continually unfolding story of how our complex material world operates. I am also interested in the impacts of scientific discovery and technological development on peoples' lives, their wider environment and the natural world. I learnt from my time in science education that one of the best ways to understand something is to try to explain it to someone else. Writing, with its opportunities to inform and entertain, is another way of advancing my own understanding by explanation. If all goes well, the results are concise, coherent and readable.Having travelled a fair amount, I don't have a parochial, Eurocentric view of science and technology. I recently worked in science education in Africa (in Malawi) and I have also travelled independently in other African countries, the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. I'm interested in stories that explore the relationship between western science and the indigenous cultures of such countries. More about the writing I
offer may be found at services, while a selection
of credits and samples of work may be found at credits.
PhotographyI am an entirely self-taught photographer. My interest in the medium was stimulated in the mid 1980s when I started a succession of independent trips to south-east Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Africa. In wanting to bring back a record of my first trip to the Malaysian rain forest, I discovered there is more to photography than 'point 'n press' and an eye for composition. Over the next few years I learnt from my mistakes to develop a range of professional skills, both artistic and technical. My photographs have since appeared in a variety of publications, as both stand alone reproductions and combined with my own text in several photofeatures. A collection of African images is managed by a photographic library. For more about my photography visit services. Stock lists and more pictures may be found in the gallery pages, and samples of published work at credits.ResearchIn the early 1970s I started my PhD at Nottingham University. At that time, I was fascinated by the strategies that mammals in different environments adopt to ensure successful reproduction. I was also interested in how advancing knowledge of physiology could be used to manipulate and manage reproduction in farm animals and humans.In my work on the laboratory rat, I developed a radio-immuno assay to investigate patterns in the secretion of testosterone by the male, and the role of the hormone in modulating the effects of environmental change on the reproductive system. I showed that testosterone levels in the blood are not stable. Several peaks and troughs occur throughout a day, levels vary seasonally (even in the apparently constant and stable environment of the laboratory rat colony) and change with age after puberty. Raised testosterone levels are found in the proximity of oestrus (receptive) females, and when males search for females using only the sense of smell. The work contributed to the emerging story of the endocrine control of the male reproductive system and sexual behaviour.
Science and environmental educationAt Nottingham University I did a lot of laboratory demonstration work and project supervision - the start of my exploration of life science education over the next 15 years. After school teaching in Nottingham, I took a Postgrad.Cert.Ed. at Huddersfield Polytechnic, and spent the following nine years as a biology lecturer at Doncaster Metropolitan Institute of Higher Education.The challenge in any area of science education is to help students gain the analytic and linguistic skills that are essential for understanding and practice. Within academic and vocational education for the 16-19 and adult sectors, those challenges are enhanced by the huge diversity of courses, and by a wide range of individual abilities and backgrounds. Building the materials and refining the skills on which successful teaching and learning depend kept me fully occupied for nearly a decade. Colleges of Further and Higher education must respond rapidly to changing patterns of demography and employment. In the table of teaching programmes below, some courses lasted but others came and went as society changed dramatically. In South Yorkshire, throughout the 1980s, the demise of the traditional industrial base of coal and steel affected all walks of life, altering the very fabric of society. It was a time and a place where the impact of technological change and social policy were keenly felt. I learnt that demonstrating the relevance of science education to the lives of ordinary people could be as important as the development of specific skills. Courses taught.
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