Work

I am a measurement scientist with a strong data science background. My aim in my professional life is to – Make Quantification Count™.

UNILEVER Research & Development

I currently lead the Advanced Measurement & Data Modelling Discovery platform for Unilever. The platform is a global team of about 200 analytical chemists, measurement specialists, statisticians, mathematicians and instrumentation scientists.  This is an incredible job and I am very lucky to be able to work closely with such a fantastic group of clever and energetic people. The team is really global;  It includes scientists from the Netherlands (Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam), the UK (Merseyside and Bedford), the US (Trumbull, Connecticutt), India (Bangalore) and China ( Shanghai). The platform exists to build competitive advantage for Unilever by exploiting state of the art instrumentation, analytical and measurement science, computer science, statistics and maths. Another way of describing this collection of activities is “Quantitative Discovery Tools” or something similar. In addition to my Unilever corporate role I get involved with non-Unilever projects. Here are some of the projects I have been involved in recently (and hope to get the chance to progress further this year).

EURAMET Research Council

EURAMET (European Association of  National Metrology Institutes) is the pre-eminent European measurement science organisation. I am the UK government representative on the EURAMET Research Council (and feel very honoured to be in such a position).  EURAMET is in the process of making a significant bid for Article  169 funding from the EU for a 500 Million Euro Metrology research program. In June 2008 I spoke at a launch event for the EURAMET organisation in  Brussels. The talk was about  “Metrology as a driver of Economic Innovation in Europe”.  The talk focused on the use of incredibly sensitive Accelerator Mass Spectrometry in human micro-dosing (or Phase Zero Clinical Trial) studies, the presentation is HERE.

Book Projects

I have a number of book projects currently on the go. This summer I taught myself the LATEX typesetting system so I could knock some lecture notes together. I have thoroughly enjoyed this as it appeals to both my technical side as well as arty side – the output is ‘professional’ looking typesetting of a set of lecture notes and case studies (running to about 200 pages of B5) and a newly re-typeset version of my Unbiased Stereology book – which I am preparing for a third edition (a sample chapter here).  

CIP Goteborg, Sweden

I have an ongoing collaboration with the Centre for Intellectual Property studies at Goteborg, Sweden. In 2007  they ran their biannual IP Forum (May 20th-23rd 2007). I was involved in the run up to it and spoke at a workshop there.

Centre for Molecular Bioscience, University of Ulster

I am a visiting Professor in this highly rated department at the University of Ulster (i.e. 5* RAE rated on two successive evaluations). I work closely with my long time collaborator there, Prof. Vyvyan Howard. I first learnt about biological stereology from Vyv nearly 15 years ago. We published a stereology textbook together in 1998, which is now in its second edition (2005), and is on track for a 3rd edition in 2009.  We still have common research interests in the area. HERE is a popular science type article on “Ancient Geometry, Stereology & Modern Medics”, that we initially wrote in 2002 and which I have tidied up. It links ancient ideas in geometry with random sampling and state-of-the-art scientific imaging. As part of my academic work I will put some of my previously written C code onto SourceForge.  this code is  for the spatial statistical analysis of 3D point patterns. I have an ongoing  interest in developing  new second order stereology tools (for quantifying local spatial arrangements in 3D space from 2D sections e.g. HERE).

Vava Model of Corporate Venturing

In 2007 I completed an Executive MBa in Technology Management from Chalmers University in Goteborg, Sweden (CHAMPS). My Masters thesis analysed how Unilever had used Corporate Venturing as part of their Cororate stretagy between 2000 and 2007 .  The academic outcome of the thesis is a synthesis of some existing literature models of Corporate Venturing. In addition I developed some visualisation, analysis and design tools for Corporate Venturing. (Vava is the Swedish word for weave). A PDF of the thesis is HERE.

The CAP model for building Open Platforms

I worked closely with Daniel Sarefjord in 2006 on a simple problem, that he expanded into a significant piece of work. The result is a great new model for using Open Source concepts and tools for building Open Innovation platforms.

PhenoQuant™

Inspired by a 2004 paper by Vyvyan Howard et al (HERE) I have been trying to develop a business model whereby high quality quantification of the phenotypic impact of specific gene knock-outs in well defined strains of transgenic mice is provided as a service.

The quantification is achieved with protocolised stereological techniques, and clients get the specific data they need on time and in full.  At the same time the parent business builds a proprietary database that can be data-mined to provide new insights and discoveries.

I worked with a Masters Student, James Stone, at the Manchester Science Enterprise Centre in 2007 to develop the concept and try to understand the market positioning for such a business, tentatively called PhenoQuant™.  James and I did some outline work on a business plan and he explored routes for funding the opportunity. The plan is not mature and it is currently dormant (but I am open to working with good MBa students who want to cut their teeth on a good technical idea that may have commercial legs).

Spiral Scratch Ltd

I co-founded this company in 2002 based on my invention of a new low cost technical approach to macroscopic 3D imaging. From foundation till July 2007 I acted as both Technology Director and Marketing Director.  Spiral Scratch is a developer and supplier of innovative game control systems to the toy industry and the electronic entertainment industry. The novel controllers are designed to be intuitive, fun and easy-to-use making for a better gaming experience through the application of advanced wireless and imaging technology. We developed a broad intellectual property portfolio to underpin our vision of creating electronic technologies that are Social, Creative & Active. The picture shows a still frame from a video of our real time 3D imaging technology. The top frame is a colour map and the bottom frame is a colour coded 3D depth image. I remain an active shareholder and in 2009 I hope we will be moving forward with a number of new projects.