Briefly, tell us about your background and career up to this point?
I trained as a graphic designer at art college in Southampton, back in the day when the main tools were a drawing board, a Rotring pen or two, a set of French curves and Letraset! I left with a Higher National Diploma (no degree here!) and my first job was for Wella – the haircare people – designing packaging for hairspray. I joined the local AppleCentre as a designer to get an understanding of the new computer technology. After this, I formed my first design company with a good friend and we designed everything from packaging to books, advertising to websites. At that time, websites were a new thing, and you could have the text plain, bold or coloured. We’ve come a long way since then.
After ten years we retired the company and I went freelance. Seventeen years later the opportunity to join King’s came along and I’ve been here two years now!
What is a typical day like for you?
If I’m coming onto campus, it’s up at six to catch a train into London and brisk walk from Waterloo to Guy’s campus. If I’m working from home, I roll down the stairs to arrive at my desk just before nine!
My first task is to check on the status of the FoLSM pages in the website. I check for broken links, and ensure the quality score is still acceptable. I’ll deal with any ‘quick fix’ broken links next, and note any that will require more work to resolve. Next it’s checking any people profile requests that have come in. Profiles are important for both staff and PhD students to be able to highlight their roles within the schools and research groups. If you don’t have a profile yet, please do apply for one.
Staff can apply here: https://internal.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/staff/web-profile-request-form
PhD Students here: https://internal.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/students/phd-profiles
Lunch usually involves a walk to grab a sandwich, then down to the Thames to watch the traffic on the river and the tourists snapping selfies in front of Tower Bridge!
The rest of the day consists of creating or updating Research group and School web pages, or advising on the best template and format for new pages. While the format of the website can feel restrictive sometimes, it does ensure consistency and allows us to deploy new pages very quickly. I’m also involved with the rest of the Communications Unit in facilitating the Town Halls and special events like the Faculty Awards.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
There are always new research group pages being developed and hosted on the FoLSM pages, and I find these very exciting to see the work undertaken across the Faculty. Publishing these web pages allows the work to be shared with the widest possible audience.
We are aware that trying to find information on the Intranet is extremely difficult. One of my current projects is working on a new set of Sharepoint pages to allow the most important information to be presented in a clear and informative manner. Whilst we can’t replace the Intranet, we can hopefully ease the pain of finding information. This project will hopefully be published in the very near future.
What do you do with your time outside academia/work?
Ahhhh, so many hobbies, so little time! I’ve been a radio ham for over forty years and enjoy contacting fellow ‘Hams’ all over the world using shortwave radio. I’ve been a volunteer for the Scout Association for over thirty five years and I’m still involved in running events for the Scouts. Combining the radio with Scouting has taken me all over the world, attending five World Scout Jamborees.
I’m also a keen Astro-photographer and I’ve managed to build a small observatory in the back garden. We’re blessed with relatively dark skies and this allows so many beautiful deep space objects to be photographed – you can see one of my efforts at the top of this article. I’ve also been involved in local theatre most of my life – never on stage though! I’m purely a technician, specialising in Audio Visual projection within the theatre.
Who inspires you most and why?
Whilst at art college we had a visit and lecture from Abram Games, who designed many recruitment posters for the forces during WW2 and afterwards for many major events – like the Festival of Britain. His style was minimalist, but beautifully executed and I still find inspiration in his designs.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
I’m not sure I can name just one thing!
I’m proud to have run my own company for over twenty-five years… I’m proud to have introduced so many youngsters to the fun and excitement of the activities Scouting offers… I’m very proud to have been on the ground crew for Tim Peake’s Principia mission, helping connect school children from ten schools across the UK to the astronaut using VHF radio during his six-month mission. I’m proud to be husband to my lovely wife Alison, and servant to our cat, Susie!
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Looking back to earlier this year, the Faculty Staff Awards were a big part of my work and I enjoyed helping with the delivery of an excellent evening. I’m looking forward to working on the 2024 awards! We’ve recently come back from a week in Malta – somewhere we’d never been before and a year in the planning. We’d go back again! Is it too early to mention Christmas? Definitely a time of the year we look forward to!
QUICK-FIRE:
Favourite season: Winter - although I grew up in South Africa and I enjoy the warm weather, the winter brings longer dark skies for my astrophotography!
Netflix recommendation: The Last Kingdom, Vikings, and Vikings: Valhalla
Coffee order: White, no sugar please!
Most-used emoji: What’s an emoji? ;-) :-D
Favourite scientist: Sir Brian May; Sir Patrick Moore – spotted the theme yet?