Systems Engineering and Systems Thinking

Visiting Professor in Innovation, Instrumentation and Systems Engineering

In 2016 I handed over responsibility for the UK Programme for the UK progamme for the Extremely Large Telescope to Chris Evans who is now UK PI and Sandi Wilson who is Programme Manager. My job now is promoting new projects and technology at the UK ATC, especially in the space domain. I am also refreshing the technology roadmapping activities for the UK ATC overall, and in particular for CubeSat deveopment. In June 2016 I chaired the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation… Show more In 2016 I handed over responsibility for the UK Programme for the UK progamme for the Extremely Large Telescope to Chris Evans who is now UK PI and Sandi Wilson who is Programme Manager. My job now is promoting new projects and technology at the UK ATC, especially in the space domain. I am also refreshing the technology roadmapping activities for the UK ATC overall, and in particular for CubeSat deveopment. In June 2016 I chaired the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation Symposium in Edinburgh. Recently, I reduced my work week at the UK ATC to 2 days, and I have just been appointed as Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor within the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of the University of Edinburgh, where I will be developing a programme in Innovation, Instrumentation and Systems Engineering, based around examples from Astronomical and Space projects. I am also an Honorary Professor at Heriot Watt University and and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Glasgow University. These positions help me to promote collaborations within the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) framework. Show less

Project Manager for the most successful ground-based astronomical instrument of recent years; SCUBA I was responsible for a project team of up to twenty staff, and all engineering, programmatic and financial control of this £6M project. SCUBA was the first imaging array for operation in the submillimetre wavebands, and incorporated 131 bolometers operating at 100mK. Engineering challenges included developing manufacturing and integration techniques for the individual bolometers, cryogenic… Show more Project Manager for the most successful ground-based astronomical instrument of recent years; SCUBA I was responsible for a project team of up to twenty staff, and all engineering, programmatic and financial control of this £6M project. SCUBA was the first imaging array for operation in the submillimetre wavebands, and incorporated 131 bolometers operating at 100mK. Engineering challenges included developing manufacturing and integration techniques for the individual bolometers, cryogenic cooling and mechanisms, long-wave optics, novel cryogenic wiring techniques, and data acquisition and image processing. At one point this instrument was second only to the Hubble Space telescope in terms of high-impact citations, and was used to discover a new type of dust-enshrouded galaxy which appear to be the source of half the light in the universe, as well as major discoveries of dust clouds around planet-star systems. The SCUBA team was recently awarded a Team Achievement Award by the RAS. Show less

Designing geological bore-hole logging equipment for oil gas and water exploration, including cement bond logs, and spectral gamma ray logs.

Working on low-power microprocessor systems and transducer physics for environmental monitoring and fish-tracking, including managing a small electronics section.

Kew Working on biological instrumentation for seed physiology and plant biochemistry, during which time gained a part-time MSc in Biophysics and Bioengineering.