I am employed as a part time member of teaching staff of the University of Glasgow whilst at the same time being a Marine Engineering Technical Authority at BAE Systems.

Throughout my career there has been a clear dual track of both teaching and practicing engineering. As an engineering teacher and lecturer I have taught in the areas of marine engineering, design engineering and renewable energy at both College and University level.

As a practising engineer I started as an engineering cadet in the Merchant Navy and progressed through the ranks as a sea-going engineer. This was followed by a degree at Strathclyde University and then a year working as an engineer for Medecin sans Frontieres in Nigeria.

In the last 20 years I have had engineering roles in failure analysis for pumped systems and build, design and test of warships and support ships. My current industrial role is as a Technical Authority overseeing the design of mechanical systems within state of the art military vessels. Instead of studying for a PhD I gained Chartered Engineer Status.

Working in both academia and industry allows me to ensure the real world needs of the engineering industry are clearly embedded in my teaching.

I have no supervision responsibilities at the University but in industry I am a supervisor/mentor for engineers gaining their Chartered Engineer Status.

I fully teach Mechanical Design 4 and have some teaching commitments for Renewable Energy 4 and Engineering Skills 1. Having previously developed Mechanical Design 1 I still advise the current course lecturer and take a keen interest in the course delivery. My teaching of Mechanical Design is closely linked to my work in industry and I ensure the courses are fully aligned to produce engineers who are of clear value to industry.