I enlisted to do a PhD at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 2003. My chosen subject was the origin of hominin bipedalism and the wading hypothesis. After a few depressing years when the infuriating peer review method frustrated every attempt to get a pretty simple and, although I say it myself rather elegant paper, published, I packed the whole thing in, only to restart again and finally pass in 2016.

In all those twenty or so years at UWA I helped in the Human Anatomy (now, bizarrely called Human Sciences) department as a first year Human Biology tutor. It’s been a privilege and pleasure for me to have been able to try to help over 2,000 students to consolidate their studies.

I guess biology was my first love, or at least obsession – when I started collecting butterflies as a four or five year old. My first book, purchased at five, was The Observers Book of Butterflies. And, biology was my strongest subject at school, despite my maths teacher, and head of department, persuading me that I was good enough at maths to go to a “red brick” university.

It was only after twenty years working in IT that I got the hankering to return to the fold and do a Masters degree at UCL (University College London.)