About Me

Welcome to my infrequently updated personal web page. I am a Professor at the University of Reading in the UK and an “external expert”  with the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) undertaking quality assessment reviews of universities and colleges.

You will find details of my research interests, including modelling and management of toxic cyanobacterial (blue green algal) blooms and more recently the use of constructed wetlands and biochar for water quality improvement (in collaboration with Defu Xu of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) in China).

I teach many students about aspects of geography and environmental science and have run residential field classes since 1995 to Yorkshire, Holland, Spain, Crete and, most recently, China. Some information about the Crete field class can be found here. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I wrote the first official biography of “American Pie” singer-songwriter Don McLean and this website includes various posts about the singer’s music and life. I ran Don’s official website for 20 years, but have no current involvement with it.

I am married with two children and live in Wiltshire, UK.