How do you describe your job when you meet people at a party?
Describe briefly how your career has progressed to date.
This is the long bit….having decided on a medical career it probably wasn’t a good start to fail ‘O’ level Biology so don’t know how I got interviews at medical school – anyway, didn’t get accepted so proceeded to pass with top grade at second attempt, where I progressed to ‘A’ levels. And failed again. And again. After failing chemistry, physics and zoology 3 times (I collected a lot of ‘O’levels!), I thought a change of plan might be in order. I had been working in drugs research and locust research in labs and it wasn’t that exciting so I thought perhaps management might be easier so did an OND in Business studies (and ‘A’ level Law just to prove that I could do ‘A’ levels). The OND got me onto a degree in Economics and Administration which I completed but didn’t enjoy. At this stage I started an OU degree and secured a lowly job with the River Authority managing river pollution – sort of management and science (I kept quiet about my lack of success at science!) After 12 years of pollution control, I thought I ought to get qualified in it so having had some on the job training plus my ongoing OU degree, I opted for a Masters in Environmental Pollution Control in the early 80s at a time when environment wasn’t as common as it is now at university. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) caught my imagination and again it combines management with the passion for environmental protection so I could do it. I qualified as the law was being adapted to take account of EU Directives so I was in the right place at the right time; I joined a consultancy (Nicholas Pearson Associates) and haven’t looked back. I was elected to the council of the Institute of Environmental Assessment in 1997. In 2002 I co-authored a book on EIA and we updated it in 2009. In the meantime, I undertook a p/t PhD on the environmental impacts of reservoirs and dams and then wrote Dam in 2008. I now lecture and tutor on EIA at Bath University p/t as well as writing and consultancy
