My first answer to, “Who am I?” is always that I’m a Christian. This is the most important part of my identity, because it is God who brings meaning and purpose into my life, and completely changes who I am. Without him, I don’t know who I would be, but I think I would be someone very different.
Another part of who I am is my family. I have a beautiful wife called Farrah, and we have two gorgeous boys called Zachariah and Nathanael. Who I am changed the instant Zach was born, because I am now a father. Who I am has also evolved throughout Zach’s life, and shifted again when Nate was born, as I continually adjust to different priorities, different emotions and different relationships.
I grew up in a great family in a suburb of London. I enjoyed lots of things, from playing football in the field with jumpers for goalposts, to playing with Transformers toys and reading Transformers comics, to writing poetry and songs and playing the piano. I’ve always been a bit of a geek—my parents brought me up to watch Star Trek and Doctor Who, and I used to pretend to be a Jedi in the garden.
Farrah, Zachariah, Nathanael and I all live in China now. We moved here in 2015 and although it’s not always been easy, living here has brought us such rewards.
I’m a physicist. I studied at Oxford University and then completed my PhD at Imperial College London. I now work at Peking University in Beijing, China, as a researcher in the Accelerator Physics group. It’s very exciting, trying to find out how the world works. The more I find out about the world, the more I’m amazed at how it all works! My PhD research was about using high energy particle physics to help with treatment for cancer, so I’m glad that my researcg is able to help people in practical ways too.
When I have free time, I enjoy reading books, playing board games, football and computer games, fixing computers and playing musical instruments.
This is just some facets of who I am. I’m constantly changing and who I am tomorrow will be slightly different from who I am today. Hopefully I’m changing for the better.