Biography

I was born in Sheffield, United Kingdom, and have lived here all my life.

My education started at Carrfield School and continued with 'O'-levels and 'A'-levels at Newfield School and evening classes for City & Guilds in Electrical and Electronic Craft Studies at Granville College (now Castle College). I studied at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) for my honours degree in Electronic Systems and Control Engineering, where I was also received an award for excellence from The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers.

Since graduating I have worked for British Steel (now Corus Group, wholly owned by Tata) at Swinden Technology Centre in Rotherham. At 25 years old, I qualified as a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Chartered Engineer (CEng), and a few years later as a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Over the years I have developed expertise in electrical, systems and control engineering as applied to reheating furnaces and rolling mills, as well as knowledge of computers and several programming languages. Today, I have a dual role managing major R&D projects and the Long Product Development Facilities, which comprise pilot-scale melting furnaces, plate, bar and rod rolling mills.

I have been a member of the RSPB (or YOC) for about thirty-five years. Until a few years ago I had always been an armchair birdwatcher - a condition, I am told, that many older birdwatchers hope to achieve. A few years ago I became a Life Fellow of the RSPB and a Life Member of both the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT). I have been taking part in the BTO's Garden Birdwatch since 1997 and also the Scarce Woodland Bird Survey, Breeding Bird Survey and Bird Atlas 2007-2011. I am a member and committee member of the Hope Valley Birdwatcher's Club in Hope Valley, Derbyshire. In 2005, I completed the Cornell University Home Study Course in Bird Biology - biology has always been one of my favourite subjects. Most recently, in 2007, I was appointed BTO Regional Representative for Yorkshire Southwest and Yorkshire Southeast regions.

My favourite local haunts - other than the garden - are my local patch, the National Trust's Clumber Park, Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts' Potteric Carr and RSPB Blacktoft Sands.