I’m a scientist and software engineer with a BSc and a PhD from the University of Queensland. In my PhD I used NMR to solve the structures of backbone cyclised plant peptides for use as drug scaffolds (the cyclisation made them orally available, a concept I discuss in my post on coffee). After my PhD I did a post-doc at Harvard University, using X-Ray crystallography to look at proteins involved in the blood clotting cascade, and, returning to Australia, I was a Peter Doherty and CDA Fellow of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and established a research group at James Cook University, in Cairns, and QIMR Berghofer medical research centre, in Brisbane. My group and I research a bunch of things, including parasites, infectious-related cancers, jellyfish toxins and the pathology of fungal infections in Australian tree frogs. If you want to see what I did in my science career you can have a look at my Google Scholar profile.
A couple of years ago, looking for something new, I jumped into the corporate world and have spent the last few years working in startups as a software developer, data engineer and data scientist and as a consultant.
Over all this time I had a keen interest and food, and while I’m far too lazy to train in a professional capacity, I’ve always been a keen home cook. To make up for my lack of skill I’ve always tried to use my scientific knowledge to understand what we are trying to do in the kitchen. It is a bit of a comfort to know why you’ve gone wrong when you stuff something up in the kitchen.
I live in Brisbane with my family and a cat that, barely, tolerates my presence in its home.
The Science of Food 