OK, Just a few words here to introduce myself.  My name is Martin Kelly, I'm 39 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".

 

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, and in particular how lattice vibrations affect those energy levels, and I developed an interest in quantum mechanics through that work - indeed, I used to use it every day in those studies.

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 (particularly the winged variety) 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 Assurance, which was formed from the remnants of the Nuclear Consulting business at AEA.  I've been working there for 13 years now.

I spend my time at Serco working on problems of radioactive waste management, contamination and disposal.  My particular areas of expertise are radiation dose assessment and health effects, repository performance assessment, decision analysis and mathematical modelling of radionuclide transport in the geosphere and biosphere (where we live).  I've 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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