About me
After completing a PhD in Low Temperature Solid State Physics at the University of Bristol, I moved into teaching, inspired by my experience of coaching undergraduate students in the practical laboratory sessions. I was fortunate to start my teaching career in the beautiful city of Oxford at St Edward's School, where I worked for eight years, before becoming Head of Physics and then Head of Science at the Oratory School in Woodcote. A move to Pangbourne College followed in 2013, where after four years as Head of Science, I moved across from the academic to the pastoral side of the College, and have never looked back.
Why do I love teaching Physics?
It helps to be a bit of a show-off! I love Physics because it always feels like peeling away a surface to find the truth revealed beneath. I remember once telling someone what I studied, and the reply was 'doesn't it spoil the beauty of a sunset, or a rainbow if you try and explain it?' No it doesn't. The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know, and to open people's eyes to the mystery and majesty of the natural world, to see the essence of the clockwork mechanism behind the Universe, is a privilege.
My other roles at Pangbourne are:
Physics teacher, Science teacher, Hockey, Netball & Tennis coach
If I hadn't been a teacher I would have been...
A bespoke furniture maker. I just love the smell of freshly sawn wood and varnish.
My role model is...
In common with many others, my scientific hero is probably Richard Feynman, 'the Physicist's Physicist', who proved very successfully that it is quite possible to combine a powerful and imaginative intellect with a sense of fun and a rich and varied life outside of the laboratory.
I would describe Pangbourne as...
I find Pangbourne College to be a very inclusive and tolerant community, and this is part of what has kept me here for the last eight years. The parents have shown themselves to also be a particularly supportive group, and it has always felt a place that is refreshingly free from ego. I suppose it helps that I get to spend each day in some of the loveliest surroundings imaginable. The food's good too...
