About CSci

Submitted by dario on Tue, 03/15/2011 - 12:44
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Image: 
Name: 
Dr Les Pook
Featured Profile: 
No
At A Glance
Licensed Body: 
IOM3
Scientist Type: 
Explorer
Investigator
Developer/Translational
Service provider/Operational
Monitor/Regulator
Communicator
Teacher
Region: 
South East
Location: 
Kent
First Degree: 
Metallurgy
Job: 
Nominally retired
Age: 
74
Home: 
Sevenoaks
Works For: 
N/A
Qualifications: 
BSc PhD
Pet Hates: 
The government
Burning Ambition: 
To drive at 100 MPH on my 100th birthday
Superpower: 
Arrange to live to 2100 so that I could see what really happened over ‘climate change’
Links: 
www.pook.org.uk
Big Picture
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 
A combination of a carpenter and an engineer
Who or what inspired you to become a scientist? 
Meeting Neville Shute when I was about 10 at a birthday party for one of his daughters. He showed the boys his workshop
What do you love about your job and being a “scientist”? 
Being nominally retired means that I have a baseline income without having to justify my activities. I can try to satisfy my curiosity and pass on what I have learned over many years to younger generations
Education
What qualifications did you take at school? 
8 O levels and 4 A levels
Why did you choose your first degree subject? 
Metallurgy for three reasons. I liked chemistry. A government report stated, wrongly, that there was an impending shortage of metallurgists. I thought, wrongly, that I didn’t have the mathematical ability to read engineering.
Do you have a Masters or PhD? If not, was it difficult to demonstrate Masters-level equivalence in order to achieve CSci? 
Yes
Job
How do you describe your job when you meet people at a party? 
A specialist in metal fatigue with particular interest in cracks.
What is ‘cutting-edge’ about your work? 
Many of the things I have done
What are the biggest implications your work will/could have in the future? 
Impossible to say.
Describe briefly how your career has progressed to date. 
7 years at an aircraft company, 26 years at a government laboratory, 8 years at a university, and 11 years nominally retired but still active
How is your job cross-disciplinary? 
Mechanical engineers regard me as a metallurgist. Metallurgists regard me as a mechanical engineer, I am one of the few links between the worlds of engineering and horology
How do you see your field developing over the next 5-10 years? 
Impossible to say
What’s the most unexpected thing about your job? 
When I was in employment being well paid for doing things I liked doing
What’s the biggest achievement of your career so far? 
Being awarded the Wöhler Medal of the European Structural Integrity Society for research into metal fatigue
Life
Would you say you have a good standard of living/ work-life balance? 
Yes
What do your friends and family think about your job? 
That I am mildly eccentric, especially my interest in recreational mathematics.
What kind of hobbies or extracurricular activities do you do to relax? 
Gardening, repairing clocks, making Meccano models, researching the wines, beers and whiskies of the World
CSci
Why did you choose to apply for CSci and what do you value most about being a Chartered Scientist? 
I was intrigued by the idea. It is more general than being a Chartered Engineer
What is the value of professional bodies? 
Membership of professional bodies is useful In establishing one’s credibility: from time to time I am asked for my professional qualifications
How important is CPD? What do you think of the revalidation process in ensuring that CSci is a mark of current competence? 
CPD is vital for anyone doing research. There is a risk of it becoming too much of a box ticking exercise
Advice & Reflection
What words of wisdom would you give someone interested in getting into your field? 
Don’t be afraid of questioning the established wisdom: the best motivation for research is a mischievous desire to upset the established order of things. Get into the habit of writing up your results. Make your own good luck by seizing opportunities as they arise
How would you define “professionalism”? 
Don’t be afraid of questioning the established wisdom: the best motivation for research is a mischievous desire to upset the established order of things. Get into the habit of writing up your results. Make your own good luck by seizing opportunities as they arise
What would you do differently if you were starting out in your career now? 
Take more interest in work place politics
What would you like people to remember about your life as a scientist? 
The books I have published, 7 so far
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