My Profile

I started life as a scientist, but have since diversified into several very different fields. If I have a role model, it would be that Jacob Bronowski chap. What impresses me about him is that he bridged the worlds of art and science; of free expression and scholarship - although admittedly he was not the only one to do this and say so!. Bronowski maintained that scientists should spend time away from their convergent studies and get involved in literature, drama and art. At the time Bronowski was active, this idea seemed heretical, since the scientific establishment was focused upon the glittering prizes of scientific success which, they believed, came only from a monastic devotion to fundamental research. Even lecturing their students was considered a distraction.

Of course, things have moved on since then and scientists have become better communicators. This was stimulated by incursions of the mass media into laboratories and encouraged by the relative obscurity and poverty of the scientists themselves, who can now find fame and fortune on TV and in print. Some very effective communicators have emerged from academia and this trend is set to continue.

I gained my first experiences in communication by addressing specialist audiences and was invited to commentate on things scientific in New Scientist and the Macmillan journal Nature. I was also fortunate enough to publish my own research work in that journal. I left academia for industry when it seemed that my research was not getting the resources I felt it needed to progress. I joined a fledgling biotechnology company and was suddenly immersed in the world of commerce - bridging science, not with art in this case, but with profit. My company was successful and was as a consequence it was sold by its entrepreneurial founders to a much bigger one - but only after we had spent more than a year marketing ourselves to visiting senior management teams, using carefully crafted audio-visual presentations and smoked salmon lunches.

I decided then to opt for private enterprise and have worked as a freelance since 1990 in various fields involving communication. I started a limited company to provide technical marketing consultancy and over the years have consulted for both public and private sector organisations. I have been involved in extensive editorial work, given lectures on behalf of clients and written about their products and services in the press. As a spin-off from a long contract with the public sector I developed an annual conference and annual exhibition which "went on tour" in 1996 to southern France. Publishing the results of these conferences led me directly into book production and the new media of the World Wide Web and Digital Discs.

Following the disposal of this scientific and technical business, I entered a partnership with a graphic designer under the business name "Medi@ctiv" - a Web and print design enterprise. Working to get our clients' businesses or other organisations online, we were dealing with topics ranging from railways to reiki. We had our share of high profile clients too including Langley Industries plc, The Human Genome Organisation, Sturmey Archer cycle gears and Brooks Saddles. Although we have now gone our separate ways into printed and electronic communication, I still design and host Web presentations (including this one).

I aim to complete that bridge from the sciences to the arts, for as well as my contract work for others, I am now engaged in writing works of fiction; creative communication in its purest form. Perhaps I am still an academic at heart?