Nigel is a Senior Portfolio Manager in the ICT Theme of EPSRC. Prior to this he was in Physical Sciences with responsibility for materials science, leadership and diversity. His long and interminable career seems to have come beyond full circle and is now overlapping as he started life pre-EPSRC with the old Science and Engineering Research Council working as a committee secretary in the materials area looking after metallurgy and materials processing as well as electron microscopy and spectrometer facilities. From there he moved on to cover a range of science and engineering research portfolios and involvement in policy generation including process, polymer and mechanical engineering, biological sciences, biotechnology and information technology. In 2001 he became EPSRC’s Head of International looking at ways to improve links with China, India and Japan.
This experience led to a four-year secondment to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office as Deputy Director of the 13-strong Science and Innovation Network in China. He was based in the British Consulate-General in Guangzhou, South China and was the first science officer to cover this prosperous, important but neglected (by the UK) area of China. As well as encouraging links within the region, he also took the lead for the network in developing policies and activities in environment, energy and climate change.