College of Health and Medicine

What is your favourite film and book?

Answering questions like this with just one favourite is so difficult, I’d probably give you a list of each if I wasn’t bothered about seeming indecisive and unable to follow directions. So just one of each….

Book: The Casuarina Tree (Somerset Maugham). No good reason why – I just like it!

Movie: Blade Runner (1982). Visually I love it and just generally worth watching no matter how many times you’ve seen it before.

What makes you laugh?

Out loud? I love watching comedy, both live and on the box, but I’m more of a “we are amused” type of audience member than a roll on the floor laughing variety. If I could illustrate this reply with a gif it’d be Ron Swansen finding something funny. With less moustache.

Tell us one thing on your ‘must do’ list for the future.

See more of Tasmania. I’ve been here for a few months now and embarrassingly the extent of my adventures ranges from Huonville through to Brighton. I have done very concentrated explorations over that tiny range at least – but at this rate my back of the envelope calculations suggest it’ll take me at least 50 years to see a reasonable amount of Tasmania so I really need to get onto it.

What do you consider to be the best part about living in Tasmania?

Everything. Tasmania (well the tiny sliver I’ve seen so far at least) is stunning and the people are great.

What do you like most about your work?

The variety. I’ve been in the lab as a neuroscientist until just recently, so there are lots of new things (both big and small) to learn. Like marketing jargon – I love it. I use it with abandon in anything that resembles an appropriate context.

Tell us one thing that might surprise people about you.

I could say “I’m a Kiwi” but based on how many times things I’ve said have needed to be translated, I suspect a lot of people already know that.

I’m quite the bundle of contradictions so I’m going to completely ignore instructions for this question and give you four things:

Despite being a Kiwi I have little interest in Rugby;

I’m a vegetarian who hunts and fishes;

And a neuroscientist who does amateur boxing;

Also, despite being from a farm I’m terrified of alpaca and llamas (see photograph!).