I was brought up in Edinburgh, and I studied
astronomy at the University of St.Andrews, as an undergraduate and a
postgraduate, finally getting my PhD in 1980.
I have done a variety of jobs, including a spell with the BBC World Service in London.
From 1982 to 1994 I held the post of City
Astronomer in Dundee, looking after the Mills Observatory -
Britain’s only full-time public observatory. For some years I was
editor of the Scottish
Astronomers’ Group newsletter SAGMag.
My chief astronomical interest is in asteroids and other small
solar-system objects. I used to be mainly involved in accurate
position measurements; lately I have also being measuring their changing
brightnesses, to produce light-curves.
I am an honorary member of staff at St.Andrews University, in the School of Physics and Astronomy. From 1996 to
2003 I was an active member of the team taking the St.Andrews mobile planetarium on trips to schools,
during which time I presented nearly 200 shows. I still provide simple information on what’s in the sky.
In February 1998, I gave a short series of lectures on Positional
Astronomy for second-year students at St.Andrews. Notes for
these lectures are available for users within the University.
I am employed part-time by the Open
University. I started off by tutoring
Astronomy & Planetary
Science;
more recently I have been tutoring
Science
in Context, and in 2010 I started working with their new
third-level
course on Astrophysics
.
In my "spare" time I also study
various Open University courses, ranging from the History of
Mathematics to Women’s Studies.
For the past couple of years I have been leading an exercise class,
mainly for older women; I trained as a teacher with Medau Movement. We work with music,
and it's a lot of fun.
I live in St.Andrews with Roger
Stapleton, and two cats called (among other things)
Smokey and Ben. I gave up driving a car
some
years ago;
I get around on foot, by bicycle, or using public transport.
Other non-astronomical interests include: amateur radio,
hand-spinning and needlework, gardening, and certain
areas of science fiction/fantasy (I share my name with a starship).
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Page last modified 2010 January 22nd.