I was born in the middle of the Apollo era, which means although men walked on the moon whilst I was alive, I was too young to remember it! I have had a fascination with space for as long as I can remember. The desire to understand our place in the universe, why are we here, where did we come from, are we alone?
My childhood desire to learn more about space was partly driven by my uncle who was also interested in Astronomy and space. I remember sitting out on warm summer evenings whilst he would point out the constellations to me. He bought me my first set of Binoculars which I still have and use to this day!
Then in 1981, April 12th to be precise, I witnessed an amazing leap in space technology. The whole of my primary school were ushered into one classroom and the television was rolled in. We witnessed history in the making as we watched the American Space Shuttle Columbia launch for the first time, a moment I have never forgotten. I knew then that I wanted to work for NASA, to explore the great unknown! Unfortunately, living in England meant that the dream never happened but my desire to learn and to understand the world we live in continues to this day.
As far as my working life is concerned, I trained initially as an engineer, specifically electronics. However I was given an opportunity to move into software directly after I had completed my training, which I took. So for the last 21 years I have worked as a software developer and consultant, mainly using IBM technologies specifically Lotus Notes and Domino. In the last 2 years I have also been lucky enough to turn professional in my other passion, photography.
I also like to get out on my mountain bike and my Honda CBR motorbike :)
In my mind I still harbour the desire to work for NASA, to help man reach new levels of understanding about the universe we live in... maybe one day!
