I am probably best described as a multidisciplinary scientist: One of my many hats was initially taking part in coral sedimentation effects studies and then marine invertebrate taxonomy (to UK NMBAQC and Australian AMIT standards) - I have most extensively worked with sponges, ascidians and minor phyla - but cultivated over the years applied expertise in microbiology, aquaculture, genetics/multiomics, cell culture, benthic ecology and bioactives for drug discovery, and deep sea biology, and also business development, field programs, ecology, surveys, scientific R&D engineering, logistics, remote area work, line management, science innovation strategy/senior leadership, etc; i.e. all the things that make research come together in the first place and become successful.
Three-decade multidisciplinary hands-on career in marine and environmental science, from coral and mangrove sedimentation projects to marine environmental engineering and applied biotech leadership. Worked on five continents.
My personal interest arose from school-holiday summers by the sea and then perhaps from a literal, (and littoral) interpretation of a quote attributed by Sir Isaac Newton: "I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me". I was hooked by the allure of the yet to be discovered worlds, initially also led by the pioneering Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Hans Hass documentaries, and the need to learn to understand these places. I built my first underwater camera with my dad’s help when I was 11, I think, and a first ROV when I was 18, and have been on and under the sea ever since.