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Age: 28

A-Levels: Maths Physics Chemistry Biology General Studies

Degree: MSci (Hons) Physics , The University of Birmingham
MSc Neuroinformatics, The University of Edinburgh
PhD Computational/Theoretical Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh

My job is...
To build models of the brain using computers. (But I am not trying to make a terminator!) Building computational and mathematical models about how the brain works helps us to refine our understanding. This allows us to suggest better experiments to be performed in the future. It also generates advances in computer technology and medicine. Recently I have been working on memory. In the near future I will be working on the Cerebellum. This is one of the main bits of your brain that deals with movement.

Home is...
I live in Oxford with my girlfriend and two cats, Captain Najork and Mogden. I like to mooch about in the city, I go to the theatre, go to the cinema, listen to live music and occasionally run down the tow path at the side of the canal like a lunatic.

The story so far...
I was born in Sheffield. Originally I wanted to be a stunt-man. I used to practice throwing myself off the furniture in the house. The ‘A-team’ and ‘Street Hawk’ heavily influenced me at this stage in my life. As time drew on, the influences changed (although I still cite B.A. Baracus as a formative figure) and I decided that I wanted to be a scientist or an engineer. I used to play around with microscopes and magnets. I had some steam engines. I had a chemistry set. I had a seasonal tiger-caterpillar collection.
I remember getting interested in computers when the original Nintendo Gameboy came out. I started playing videogames at this time. I enjoyed the games but was also interested in what was inside the box. These days I don’t have much time for games, but I do spend a large amount of my time playing with computers. What with being interested in these things, I always had a very strong feeling that I wanted to spend my time investigating the natural world. I still feel exactly the same 20 years later.
For these reasons, my A level subject choices at school were dominated by science. I was very happy to be allowed to focus on science subjects. Originally I was most interested in Chemistry. At GCSE level this was the best science subject to my mind. Chemistry had flames and stench where Physics could only muster lame filament bulb circuits and irritating demonstrations of Huygens principle with nothing but a prism and some pins.
Despite the fact that I had a wonderful teacher, A-Level physics was not much better than GCSE and chemistry was still more fun (by now we were making extremely flamable liquids that smelled of pear drops). Nevertheless I could see that if I studied Physics a little further, it had the potential to become very astonishing indeed. For this reason I chose to do Physics at University. I was not disappointed: If you study Physics at university you get to play with liquid nitrogen, plasma, xrays, high voltage electricity, electron microscopes and 'proper' electronics using microprocessors.
You may be wondering 'If you think physics is so amazing, then why do you study the brain?' I study the brain, because I have decided that it is the most astonishing system known to science. Even the physicists of this world still cannot adequately explain its operation or tell us the reason that such a thing should exist. The brain is so important in the everyday lives of every one of us and yet we dont understand how it works. As a scientist this keeps me awake at night.

Day in the life:
I have been working at home for the past 5 months while I have been writing up my PhD. I spend the day sitting in some location in my house with my laptop (and a cat or two). I have 3 lists of things to do which I consult every morning. One list is of simulations that I have to run. Another list is a list of data analysis or calculations that I have to do, and the final list is a list of pieces of writing that I need to do or graphs that I need to plot.
Everyone has a different style of doing research. I tend to do things in parallel much of the time. For example I will be letting the details of a calculation brew in my mind while I prepare the graphs of some data that I have already analysed. Or maybe I will be writing something up while simulations are running. Most of my simulations run on very powerful computers up in Scotland. I can log into the computers over the internet and use them as if they were in my own house.

Pet project:
I work with an artist and an architect on a project called ‘Cuboid’. We build large wooden boxes and place them in city locations. The boxes are then used to occupy that space and use it as we wish. For example we have done projects where the Cuboid was used to spy on public wireless internet traffic or was used as a Polaroid booth in which we took pictures of everyone who passed and asked them to write down one word that they would use to sum themselves up.

Free time:
I blow off steam by going to the gym. I also like to unwind in front of the fire with a good book. I often read to my girlfriend.

What are your burning ambitions?
I would like to lead an independent research organisation.

The best thing is...
Spending my working time doing something that I really love. Spending my free time in a loving home with my collection of rascals and monsters.

Any regret(s)?
I don’t spend time thinking about regrets. Although I do regret owning two shell-suits when I was about 10. (Do a Google image search...)

What do you love most about science and engineering?
It makes us stop and think.
It’s easy to take everything for granted. We humans are very good at this. It might even be a deliberate attempt by our brains to keep us down to earth. But if we stop and think about it, everything is miraculous. It is amazing that we are even here. I find it deeply mysterious and beautiful. Science is about trying to gain genuine understanding of this by looking at nature and by thinking about it. Sometimes we can also ask nature questions in the form of experiments. The answers that nature gives make science a powerful thing.

One interesting fact:
There are about 100, 000, 000, 000 neurons in your brain
There are about 7, 000, 000, 000 people on planet earth