Doing What I Do Best -  

              'the impossible'

  A Brief Personal History

Hello, my name is David, I'm in my early forties and was born and brought up in the United Kingdom.   My interest in technology has been life-long.  As a child I was always asking my parents how and why.  To their credit they let me tinker with things and fostered by desire to answer the how and why questions by exploring and reading.  By taking something apart and hopefully putting it back together again you learn.  My parents encouraged me to explore those questions they themselves had no idea, time or the interest to answer.  When my parents passed away when I was still a teenager I found solace in trying to understand the bigger picture - "of Life, the Universe and Everything" - in particular Nature.

I went to university and studied biochemistry, and three years later obtained my honours degree.  While at university I was able to engage in many other interests including astronomy, physics, electronics and computing.  This at a time when computers were mainframes - filled a large room -  and not many organisations could afford to have one. 

At 21 I enrolled for my PhD,  researching into metabolic biochemistry.  The topic I choose - was to elucidate the control mechanism(s) and the related chemical trigger(s) for a unicellular yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that was able to switch on and off various metabolic pathways when exposed to different growth regimes.

After a post-doctoral fellowship for two years I moved to a small biotechnology company specialising in contract purification of enzymes of commercial value.

Unfortunately, the recession of the 80's forced us out of business and I went to work for the Government in research and development on various projects in BioSafety.  Research and development gave way to management and latterly policy.   My interest and grounding in technology has suited me well in the posts and jobs I have undertaken for that last 15 years. 

 I am presently on secondment from the UK Government working on contract for the United Nations in New York, working on WMD non-proliferation matters connected to a 'country in the middle east'.  But that's another story.