About

In short: Former scientist. Current coder. Future supervillain.

Scientist

Look upward, and share the wonders I’ve seen

I went to Cambridge University for a degree in Natural Sciences, specialising in Physics and taking a 1st.

I submitted my PhD, which I also studied for at Cambridge, in the summer of 2014. The majority of my work revolved around components of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer, a revolutionary Optical Interferometer. This included design and testing of the required components, as well as analytic prediction and simulation of its eventual performance.

At that point, I decided that while I adored the academic environment, I did not enjoy the associated politics and lack of agency around even what country you needed to live in. As a result, I left academia.

Coder

I spend most of my life pressing buttons to make a pattern of lights change

Computers have held sway over me since a very young age; arguably too much sway. I currently work remotely as a programmer in London, and ostensibly always have a side project on the go when time allows. Those range from silly ones that burn fast and bright like the Old Spice Voicemail generator, and more serious ones with sustained use like the first code coverage tool for Solidity, the most widely-used language for smart contracts.

Supervillain

I can wire anything directly in to anything

Part of the reason I chose the instrumentation PhD that I did was because of a love of hardware. If I am brutally honest, my participation in this space has fallen off in recent years (I recently realised I didn’t know where my soldering iron was - a sad low-water mark) but I still enjoy a dabble when I can. I was particularly pleased with my custom arcade stick, and dragging my SEGA Dreamcast in to the 21st century even resulted in a talk at EMFCamp.