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  • My primary education was in New Zealand (where we lived until 1969)
  • My secondary education was in Edinburgh, Scotland (1969-1972), & in Lancaster, England (1972-75)

  • University Education:
    • B.Sc., Physics & Mathematics, June 1978, University of Sussex, UK.
    • M.Sc., Applied Cryogenics, Dec. 1979, University of Lancaster, UK.
    • D. Phil., Theoretical Physics, Nov. 1983, University of Sussex, UK.
  • Before finishing my D. Phil., I held a large number of short term summer jobs (in teaching, construction, etc), and also worked for a year in the head office of Crown Zellerbach, a Pacific West Coast lumber company, between secondary school and university.

  • Postdoctoral: In between my 1st postdoc in Massachussetts (1983-84) and my 2nd postdoc in France (1984-85), I worked as a professional musician (flamenco guitar). Note that my postdocs in Santa Barbara and Madrid were held simultaneously (1988-89).
    • Jul. '83 - Jun. '84, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Massachusetts, USA
    • Jun. '84 - Oct. '85, Professional MUSICIAN
    • Oct. '85 - Oct. '87, Royal Society (London) European Fellow, Laboratoire Neel, CNRS, Grenoble, France
    • Oct. '86 - Oct. '87, Research Fellow, University of Lancaster, England
    • Oct. '87 - Jun. '88, Research Attache, Recherche Fondamentale, CENG, Grenoble, France
    • Sep. '88 - Aug. '89, Personal Investigador, CSIC, Autonoma, U., Madrid, Spain
    • Feb. '88 - Jul. '88, Visiting Fellow, Inst. For Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

  • Academic Employment
  • I was hired into my first academic appointment at UBC (Vancouver, Canada) in 1990 but given the opportunity of a reduced teaching load with a URF fellowship jointly funded by NSERC and the University. This was made a joint Asst. Prof/URF position in 1992. I was granted tenure in June 1997. I spent the period Dec 1992-June 1993 in Princeton University, the period Apr-June 1994 in MIT, and the period 1997-98 in the European "Institut Laue-Langevin" (Grenoble, France), each time as a visiting Professor.

    Near the end of 1999 I moved to a joint position- a Spinoza Chair in Condensed Matter theory at the Spinoza institute (University of Utrecht), and a tenured full Professorship in the faculty of Physics and Astronomy (University of Utrecht). The Spinoza professorship also involved running the Spinoza institute jointly with G. 't Hooft and E. Verlinde, and teaching relief for 5 years was associated with this position.

    The move to UBC in 2002 was part of a large initiative in theoretical physics by that university, in which a plan for a new theoretical physics institute was also involved. The PITP began operations in earnest at the beginning of 2003, and has now raised considerable money, and organized a large number of workshops, summer schools, and conferences. I am the director of this institute.

    Note that from 1995-99, and from 2002 onwards, part of my salary was being paid by the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research (CIAR). I am presently a member of 2 CIAR programs ("Quantum Materials", formerly "superconductivity", since 1995, and "Nanoelectronics" since 2000). During my time in Utrecht I was a foreign member of these programs.

  • Leaves of absence
    • Dec. 1992 - Apr. 1993, Visiting Prof. at Princeton University (on leave from UBC).
    • Apr. 1993 - Jun. 1993, Visiting Prof. at MIT (on leave from UBC).
    • Jun. 1997 - Sep. 1998, Sabbatical at Institut Laue - Langevin, Grenoble(on leave from UBC).
    • July 2001 - Aug. 2001, Visiting Prof. at CNRS, Grenoble (on leave from Spinoza Institute).