HiggsHunter

I'm fairly long in the tooth, having finished my PhD in 1968 and worked with CERN for over 33 years. My family has always been very interested in education matters, from kindergarten to post-doc level. (My Dad was President of the Association of Directors of Education of Scotland, and my uncle was Secretary General of both the Canadian Teacher's Federation and the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession).

I've supervised undergraduate summer students at CERN, and carried out a dozen training missions for the UNDP, UNIDO, UNFPA and WTO/UN ITC in India, Bangladesh and Somalia. I also did airborne radar systems analysis for a UK avionics company, and designed antennas for 15 years for another manufacturer. Although my speciality is science rather than language, I have taught English at a private school in Geneva, preparing students for the BSCC exams. Having learned to fly with a university air squadron, I have done translation work for the aviation magazine Interavia as well as Traducta.

My hobbies include playing saxophone (with more enthusiasm than talent), ballroom dancing (ISTD Gold Medal), amateur radio and classic cars, and I've published two books in collaboration with Alfa Romeo and Bertone.

Having started my family very late, I now have two sons at an international bilingual IB school in Switzerland, which is the reason for my present interest in MYP and DP studies. My wife teaches extracurricular Mandarin at the primary as well as the secondary campus. I hope to follow some of the discussions on IBSurvival, and perhaps make a few comments if I can be of some help to younger participants.