My professional interests have been formed by my two careers. Firstly, as an Officer in the Royal Navy, primarily engaged in Operation Meteorology and Oceanography, and secondly as a secondary school teacher of mathematics. In fact, these two experiences blended well. The RN I joined in the 1980s recruited maths and science graduates as commissioned officers to conduct technical training from elementary life skills to post graduate level applied science and these folk were also employed to manage a variety of non-engineering STEM type tasks, one of which was ‘METOC’, or operational Meteorology and Oceanography. The METOC role took me on a fabulous tour of ships, aircraft carriers, submarines and headquarters at a time when much of analysis was knowledge lead within the developing data communications support of the last century. Teaching, communicating and applied scientific analysis went hand in hand. My own university education was in Mathematics which has been a lifelong love for me, and I continue to be an active enthusiast. Teaching examination year mathematics to teenagers was an easy change when I packed away my kit after 18 years’ service. The wide range of topics in UK mathematics and further mathematics A levels kept my head fully engaged. Now retired from both these careers I can contemplate the vast resources of science and data in weather, climate and physical geography. Some of these things catch my eye either from a local perspective here in Kent UK of more globally and I like to explore them within the context of my own set of experiences and abilities.
weather, climate, geographic information systems for Kent, UK and global
