 One of the things I do is as organiser of a Café Scientifique in Brampton, Cumbria, UK.  This is a time and place where members of the public can engage informally with practising scientists and technologists, to listen to some of the latest ideas in science, and to debate issues with a visiting speaker.  Our current series is about to start - click on the poster for more information. |
I am a member of Fusion - The Open University Physics Society and am the editor of their Web site. I also serve on their committee. I am also a member of the Institute of Physics, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the British Computer Society and hold their Chartered IT Professional status, a fellow of the Institution of Analysts and Programmers, and a fellow of the Academy of St Cecilia. In the course of my varied career in IT and music I have travelled and visited Latvia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Portugal where I have also conducted orchestras. I like to read science, music, biography and history. Other activities include flying (I have a private pilot's licence) and bell-ringing. |
|
I started my career in the early seventies, working as a computer programmer in Winchester. This was using the IBM360 assembler language, and the PL/1 high level language.  At that time all programs had to be coded almost from scratch, although the use of standard subroutines for common tasks was starting to make its presence felt. After a couple of years, I moved to Birmingham in order to make the most of opportunities for my then hobby - bellringing.   At the same time, I took the opportunity when it presented itself to work with the new programming language APL, and to move into systems programming, initially on the IBM OS/VS1 operating system.  Shortly afterwards I began freelancing as a systems programmer, moving eventually into MVS and OS/390 operating systems.  In 1998, I went back into working as an employee, for a multinational IT corporation, and am still there today. I also act as a web designer, usually using CMSes (Open Source) for societies and individuals. Throughout all this, I have retained my interest in music - initially as an organist, but also as a french-horn player (in which capacity I have worked with several orchestras), as a choral director (working with quite a few choral societies and also as Diocesan Music Adviser in Birmingham, and as a former Assistant Regional Director for the Royal School of Church Music.  I studied orchestral conducting, and have directed many concerts with both amateur and professional forces. In 2008 I started studying for a physics degree with the Open University, and am pursuing, as part of that, courses in physics, mathematics, and cosmology. I hope in due course to be able to pursue such studies at higher level, and gain the chance to work productively in the high energy physics field. |
|
 I had always had an interest in physics, but at school was persuaded by a combination of factors to do other things.  So, now I've returned to physics - but why?  As best as I can make out, it's because physics at the moment is supremely exciting - with the prospects at CERN (with the LHC), and at Fermilab (the Tevatron) of finding physical evidence of the Higgs boson, and therefore start to unravel the secrets of mass.   Of the chance to see how the universe formed in its earliest moments - and lest anyone think that the early universe is irrelevant, one only has to think that each one of us has atoms in our bodies which were formed inside stars, and those stars could not have formed without the energy created in the early universe. |
|
I decided to call this site Physiker because, even though I started out as an IT worker and musician, I am now pursuing studies in physics, mathematics, and cosmology with the Open University. As a musician my first instrument was the organ, and so I have a natural affinity with the music of JS Bach and the German high baroque - so the German word for physicist seems slightly appropriate now! As a physicist my interests focus particularly on high energy and particle physics. I also design web sites, often for community organisations - some of those can be seen in the pages of this site.