Faces of Reading

As well as my two regular clubs, I teach a group of pupils with learning disabilities once a month.

I started training in martial arts when I was 15 and really enjoyed it; I'm now a black belt, 3rd Dan. I found it beneficial to me physically, because I have cerebral palsy, and it helped with socialising as well.

I was lucky enough to be taught by a very good instructor, he is now the other instructor at the club and still trains me.

I'm in a wheelchair occasionally, but at work I'm sat down behind the desk most of the time with supportive staff around me. If I'm struggling a bit, there's always a way round it. Everyone is helpful and friendly, which always makes things easier.

I'm always keen to take opportunities to put on martial arts demonstrations to share it with the University and wider local community.

I work full time, but I work from home 4 days a week. Managers are very good at giving us that flexibility.

I have Becker Muscular Dystrophy, and people have been very supportive without being patronising. Part of the reason for working from home is to help manage my fatigue. I live in Reading, I came here when I was 18 as a student and have more or less stayed here ever since. I had been commuting to Oxford – I was at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust before – which was getting a bit too tiring. It's better now I'm working a lot closer to home.

The team from Estates and Facilities also came in and created a kind of frame by my desk so I can get up easily, which has been really helpful. Everyone in the office will help out if I need anything too; it's been a positive experience.

My role is now "teaching intensive", which means research is only a minor part of what I do.

As an 18-year-old student, the last thing I thought I would be doing was standing up in front of people giving talks. Showing off my project to prospective students gave me the confidence to do it. I get a buzz out of it now: the different ways of teaching things, thinking about technology and what we can use.

I was made Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2014. I have been Head of Department, Director of Teaching and Learning, and Senior Tutor. I am now School Director of Technology Enhanced Learning in the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences.

How we do things has changed considerably. We used to have mobile robots to promote our courses, which were part of our outreach activities, now we use massive open online courses (MOOCs). You get people of all ages all over the world doing them. I’m the lead educator for the Begin Robotics MOOC, where anyone can learn about robotics, which features many interactive web pages I developed. I also use such web pages when teaching artificial intelligence, virtual reality and mathematics. They also featured in a recent project about how to make online learning more accessible for all.

It's great to be in an exciting subject area where there's constant innovation and new technology, and where things are continuing to develop.

I have been teaching pharmacy students since the Reading School of Pharmacy was established, with our first intake of less than 50 students in 2005. Now I am very happy to see how it developed into a very successful department delivering many undergraduate and postgraduate programs with several hundred students each year. 

Currently, I am Professor of Formulation Science and I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and also contribute to the Graduate School with a course on ‘How to write a paper’. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I supervise a large and very interdisciplinary research group, which includes postgraduate students and researchers from many countries. I am also a Programme Director for MSc by Research for 3 different programmes in Pharmacy and in this role, I oversee the delivery of teaching to our taught postgraduate students. 

I widely collaborate with researchers from many countries, which means that each year I travel to different institutions to deliver lectures, conduct joint experiments and attend research conferences and meetings. I am glad that the University of Reading provides a flexible working environment that helps to manage all my academic activities, including teaching, research, administration, and visits to collaborators in many countries.