About Me

I grew up in Nuneaton, in the Midlands, where I attended King Edward VI sixth form college. I studied my first degree here at Edinburgh University, in Ecological science, and graduated with first class honours. After a couple of months working for the University and the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management as a GIS analyst, I returned to my studies.

During the course of my degree, I found myself increasingly interested in spatial analysis. It always seemed slightly odd to me that in ecology, where we often deal with spatial phenomena such as distribution and clustering, we often discard the spatial components of the data. This can largely be attributed to Fishers' seminal contributions to agricultural statistics, where spatial effects were regarded as a nuisance. More recent contributions to the analysis of ecological data are my main interest; particularly the  application of point pattern analysis to forest stucture, and the use of geostatistics for spatial estimation and interpolation. I am also interested in the use of machine vision techniques to segment and measure tree biophysical parameters from optical remote sensing platforms.

I was fortunate in that I was able to attend a GIS course as part of my degree; the last year the dedicated GIS for ecology course ran. I am indebted to Jim Wright (now at Southampton University) for his constant help and encouragement. My initial interest grew from there, and I began to teach myself from books. After I completed my degree, my short employment with the University introduced me to remote sensing. The project I was envolved with used a synthesis of GIS and remote sensing techniques as a tool to quantify and map patterns of landuse change in Nhambita, Mozabique. You can see the report here.

Since October 2004 I have been studying my PhD, under the auspices of the Centre for Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics. I am currently awaiting my viva since submitting my PhD.

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to attend the taught components of the University of Edinburgh MSc programme in Remote Sensing, and GIS. I have also attended the Terraseer Geostatistics training courses at the Michigan League, Ann Arbor, and the CTCD summer school 2005.

I am working as a part of the Biosphere Atmosphere Modelling group, with Tim Hill, Casey Ryan and Rui Zhang. I am also a member of the Edinburgh University Biosphere Atmosphere Program (EUBAP).

My hobbies include photography, snowboarding, capoeira, playing the guitar and knitting. I also really enjoy books, poetry and cinema. I have been playing the guitar for around 16 years now, and I enjoy playing all types of music, especially the noisy ones. See my links for some of my favorites.