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Biography

Who's that ugly bloke?

Born:

March 29th, 1977, in London

Early years:

Moved around rather a lot due to my dad's work. London, then Bahrain, London again, Bahrain again. Spent a year and a half in Dayton, Ohio before finally settling down in Bath when I was ten.

Teenages:

Established in Bath, lovely house, nice school (King Edward's at Bath). First became genuinely interested in computing when I joined the school's computer club age 11. Academic career took off at about 14, when I first knew for certain that I wanted to go to university. It was also about now that I realised that I really quite enjoyed physics and maths. It looked like Cambridge was going to be an option, so I decided to aim high - and here I am.

University:

Arrived at Trinity college in October '95 - hard not to be overawed by the ancient and imposing surroundings and the impossibly intelligent people floating around - both fellows and undergraduates. Studying Natural Sciences Tripos - in the first year I took Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science and Maths; my second year options were Advanced Physics and Maths, the third year was just Theoretical Physics, and so is this year (finals - argh!), although my project (on magnetic noise) is quite experimental. Well, since coming here I've been converted to the viewpoint that physics is best approached by doing both theory and experiment :)

Trinity, as well as being the largest college in Cambridge, is also the richest. This allows them to give people like me obscene amounts of wad for getting 1sts in any year of study. Due to its size, it boasts many thriving societies, so anyone can find something to do. Rooms in college are available for the full period of undergraduate study, and all have access to cooking facilities (a good thing, as the food in hall is very institutional, although it's improved measurably whilst I've been here). The sports facilities are good, and the college's boats have all been making concerted charges up their respective divisions in the bumps.

Work experience:

I have now spent five summers working at IPL, mainly writing C code. Last year was slightly different - I got to hack around in Visual Basic and UNIX's Bourne Shell writing developement environment tools, which I'm told now actually works, much to my surprise.

The Future:

I haven't quite figured this out yet. I know I want to do a PhD. After that, if I'm good enough, I'd like to go into academic physics research. If only lecturers got paid a decent wage. Seems odd that so many of the cleverest people in the country are amongst the least paid professionals. Failing that, a career in software developement beckons.