Profile

I am a 38-year old applied mathematician who has previously worked for Ford Motor Company in Essex, the University of South Wales in Pontypridd, and Morgan Stanley in Glasgow.

I live just outside of Glasgow with my partner, who is a neuroradiologist (and therefore says she is a “proper doctor”, unlike me).

I’m a vegetarian (although love the taste of meat), play football and the bass guitar (both poorly). Here I am playing against a team of ex-professionals in a charity match at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock.

I enjoy muay thai and boxing.

I ride a Honda VFR750 when it isn’t raining (so about once a year),

and my best mate is Arnold Swarzenegger.

Finally, one of the things I’ve said above isn’t true! 😉

As a lecturer in mathematics, I am responsible for communicating mathematics to a wide range of audiences. The main body of students I lecture to are Mathematics with Education students. They are training to become school teachers of mathematics, and so are required to be educated to degree level in mathematics, and also have a significant amount of experience in school placements.

I also teach mathematics to students studying chemistry, forensic science, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering, sport science and psychology. I’ve also previously taught mathematics to students studying electrical and electronic engineering, biology, chiropractic studies and pharmacology.

Mathematics is taught to so many different types of student because it underpins so many scientific and numerical subjects. Consequently, I need to know how these students apply certain areas in mathematics, so that I can make the subject relevant to them.

I’m also involved in applied mathematics research. This often involves using classical mathematics techniques in novel and creative ways to solve problems in engineering and science. I’ve used mathematics to consider research problems in ultrasound, flat screen displays, heat transfer in welding, and improving procedures in maternity hospitals.

People who are mathematically trained are sought after in a multitude of sectors. During my degree, I worked at Ford Motor Company for three months, investigating how to make savings for the company across a range of their supply chain. I didn’t know anything about business or cars back then, but was hired because of my problem solving skills gained during my career.

I also worked for Morgan Stanley in Glasgow. I lead a team of five people responsible for checking the accurancy of the “exotic options” trade reporting in the North America region. We were responsible for highlighting, investigating, and fixing errors in the reporting of every trade done by Morgan Stanley traders on a day-to-day business. Consider this: if the trader books in a trade of selling 5,000 shares at 49p a share, but the financer books in a trade of selling 5,000 shares at £5,000.00 a share (it was a Friday afternoon and mistakes can happen), just how much of an error would have been made on our official books? This is an exampe of a little error having huge consequences if it wasn’t for my team’s activities.

Every day is different for a lecturer in mathematics, but here was my week last week:

The blue and grey entries are for teaching duties (either preparing or delivering), pink is related to administration and management duties (related to management of the maths group, management of the maths degree, university commitees etc.), orange and yellow is for outreach and professional work (duties for the Scottish Mathematical Council, external examiner duties, and visiting schools), and green is to highlight research related work.

No two weeks are the same and no two days are the same. During term, most of my time is filled with teaching/support related duties and administration of my modules and the degree programme. When the students finish for the year, I get a change to forge ahead with research related work and making changes to modules and the degree programme after reflecting on the success of the previous year.

I enjoy the teaching part of my job the most. Having an opportunity to discuss the applications of mathematics to a variety of students is great fun. I also enjoy visiting schools and showing pupils (and teachers!) just how useful mathematics is, and where it can lead you.

Working with engineers, physicists, biologists and chemists on research projects is great too. You get to meet loads of different types of people in academia, with loads of different problems that they might need a mathematician to help them with!

I’m not here for a prize – just to tell everyone how useful maths is!

If I did win a prize, I’d use to travel to a national conference on the teaching and promotion of mathematics. You get some great ideas by listening to other people’s experience from around the world.