OK, Just a few words here to introduce myself.  My name is Martin Kelly, I'm 40 years old, single, and I live in a small town called Didcot in England, UK.  Didcot is about 50 miles west of London, and is very much an industrial town.  It's dominated by the large power station that is located here, and many of the inhabitants of Didcot work at the power station.  Other folk work in London, but choose to live here as they'd rather live away from London.  London is only 45 minutes away by train.  Didcot isn't such a bad place to live, and there is much beautiful countryside around to enjoy.  Which is good, as I'm a country boy at heart, not a "townie".  My main vices are smoking and enjoying a few ciders every now and again!

 

The story of my life ...

I was born in Solihull in Birmingham on 1st August 1968, and went to school (Mill Lodge Primary School) until I was about 8, at which point we moved to a town called Kenilworth.  I went to Clinton School and from there to Kenilworth School and Castle Hall Sixth Form Centre.

I then moved to York University in 1986 to study Physics, and from 1989 to 1993 I studied at Warwick University to do a PhD in theoretical physics.  My PhD involved evaluating the energy levels of gadolinium atoms in solids.  As you can imagine, mentioning that lot is a sure-fire conversation killer!

I should say that York is a beautiful city in the north of England.  The university campus is something to behold - when I was there it had the largest artificial lake in Europe, and a collection of wildlife that made it a pleasure to stroll the grounds.  It was not uncommon to be sauntering along, minding your own business, only to be overtaken by a flock of geese marching from one end of the campus to the other!

I moved from university to work for AEA Technology at Harwell Laboratory, famous for being the original home of the nuclear industry in the UK, and where many of the great pioneers of nuclear physics worked in the past.  I now work for a company called Serco TAS, which was formed from the remnants of the Nuclear Consulting business at AEA.  I've been working there for nearly 16 years now.

I spend my time at Serco working on problems of radiological dose and risk assessment for waste disposal facilities and contaminated land.  I'm lucky to work on some very high-profile projects in the UK, including at Sellafield and the LLWR repository (both in the Lake District).  I've also been very fortunate that my work has taken me all around the world, and in so doing I have met many wonderful people and had some of the best experiences of my life.

 

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