I am from Christchurch, New Zealand. I went to Aorangi Primary (before it closed down), Cobham Intermediate and Burnside High. I forget what I did there, we played a lot of chess, and tennis. Most of my spare time was spent fiddling with boats.
I did my honours degree in physics at the Unviersity of Canterbury, then went off to Australia for a while. My PhD thesis was about silicon micromachining for optical communications components and sensors.
About this point I met my legendary partner Ting, with whom I have had many an interesting adventure.
Six more years were in Adelaide, designing solar cells for a large and reasonably evil oil company. That was fun, but the fab eventually relocated to the USA, to take advantage of those poor starving Americans. Ting and I didn’t fancy moving to Idaho so we came home. I like working in renewable energy. I am also interested in steam engines, heat pumps, solar thermal and intermediate technologies.
I have spent time in forty or so countries, mostly in less developed parts of Asia.
I like most outdoor activities, including cycle touring, sailing, mountain biking, rock climbing, tramping and kayaking. I also spend a lot of time building stuff in my shed. I spent two years in a Chinese lion dance team (as the tail), played soccer for six years and sometimes play tennis.
