Employment
| 2018– | Freelance author and science presenterWorking on a book on the science of ageing for Bloomsbury in the UK and Commonwealth, Doubleday in the US and several publishers in translation in other territories worldwide. |
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| 2014–2018 | Post-doctoral fellow in biostatistics, Computational biology group, Francis Crick InstituteUsing machine learning techniques such as neural networks to analyse genomic data and electronic medical records. |
| 2013 | Post-doctoral research assistant, MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King’s College LondonProcessing high-throughput imaging data of C. elegans to determine how neural coding through gene expression regulates lifespan. |
| 2011–12 | STFC Science in Society grant, University of OxfordAwarded to allow me to continue my science communication, specifically to create a programme of Accelerate! demonstration lectures across the south-east of England.EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship, University of OxfordAn award available to the top 15% of EPSRC-funded PhD students to increase the impact of their doctoral research in terms of publications, knowledge transfer and outreach. |
| 2007–11 | Teaching
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Education
| DPhil | DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics, University of OxfordUsing particles called muons to investigate new kinds of magnetic and superconducting materials, supervised by Prof Stephen Blundell. Thesis: Quantum magnetism probed with muon-spin relaxation. |
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| MPhys | Master of Physics (First Class Honours), University of OxfordAcademic scholarship 2004–2007, Dixon scholarship awarded in 2007 for performance in finals examinations. Collie and Gibbs prizes for communicating physics, Scott Prize for Performance in ‘Teaching and Learning Physics in Schools’ option, and the Christ Church English Prose Prize. |
Selected publications
Machine learning models in electronic health records can outperform conventional survival models for predicting patient mortality in coronary artery disease
PLOS ONE (2018) / DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202344
A gene-expression-based neural code for food abundance that modulates lifespan
eLife 4, e06259 (2015) / DOI: 10.7554/eLife.06259
Magnetic order in quasi–two-dimensional molecular magnets investigated with muon-spin relaxation
Physical Review B 84, 064412 (2011) / DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.064412
PDF / arXiv:1104.3505 / journal article (subscription required)
Science communication
Broadcast
- Regular expert on documentary series Impossible Engineering, looking at how the innovators of the past have enabled the technological marvels in the modern world. The show, which recently completed its second series, is broadcast on Yesterday in the UK, Discovery in the US, and many other channels in territories around the world.
- Other credits include The One Show, Discovery’s Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, BBC News, Sky News, World’s Most Extreme on More4 and How Hacks Work.
- On radio, BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science, Newshour on the BBC World Service, the Guardian Science Weekly podcast, and various local radio stations across the UK.
Live
- Talks to tens of thousands of students and members of the public at venues from science festivals and schools to theatres and pubs, including the Cheltenham Science Festival, New Scientist Live and Brian Cox and Robin Ince’s Christmas Compendium of Reason at the Hammersmith Apollo.
- Winner of FameLab UK, a competition seeking the best three-minute science talks. Winner of the Online Vote from FameLab alumni worldwide in FameLab International 2012.
Online
- Presenter, writer and co-producer of my YouTube channel.
Writing
- Articles for outlets such as the Guardian the The Conversation.
Science funding and policy
- Chair of Science is Vital, a grassroots campaign of scientists and supporters of science making the case for a strong UK science base.
- Founder of Scienceogram, which raises the profile of research funding by making sense of spending on science.
- Author of two submissions to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee on behalf of Scienceogram:
- Response to ‘The science budget inquiry’, September 2015 (submission available on scienceogram.org)
- Response to ‘Research and Development funding for science and technology in the UK’, November 2013 (submission available on scienceogram.org)
- Co-author of ‘Legacy of the 2010 science budget cash freeze’, reporting a survey of scientists by Science is Vital, delivered to the Science Minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, June 2013.
- Contributor to the Sense About Science Missing Evidence inquiry into government research, June 2016.
Skills and interests
Computing
- Experienced user of Windows, Mac OS and Linux, including command-line tools and HPC environments.
- Programming in R and Python.
- Expert image, video and audio editing (including Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and After Effects).
- Proficient web designer (WordPress, HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL, some Javascript). I built this website from scratch using WordPress.
Photography
- My photograph Red Moon rising over Oxford was highly commended in Royal Greenwich Observatory Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 competition. Another photograph, Shropshire paraselene, was shortlisted in 2012.
- Published in national newspapers including The Sun.