After a course in Operational Research at Lancaster, I joined the National Coal Board. It was 1974, the year after the miners' strike and coal was the fuel of the future. I was the only analyst in the office with a two-memory calculator.
Computers improved. By 1980 we were using Apples. I recall a visit to York Races with my sponsors, offering my "Financial case for coal" model, hoping to sell more coal to industry.
In 1986 I moved to Thames Water, to restart an OR Group from scratch. Our family all moved to Reading. The run-up to privatisation was a good time for a newcomer. Slowly I built up a team.
Our biggest project was to develop a daily scheduling system for the many pumps linked to the new London Water Ring Main. Our system won a major award and led to a talk at the Royal Society. But there were lighter moments too. The last picture below shows me during a visit to Danish colleagues, with a mermaid in Copenhagen.
But all good things come to an end. In 2006 I left the water industry, completed a PhD at Lancaster on the deeper meaning of water meter data then moved on to writing fiction.
Computers improved. By 1980 we were using Apples. I recall a visit to York Races with my sponsors, offering my "Financial case for coal" model, hoping to sell more coal to industry.
In 1986 I moved to Thames Water, to restart an OR Group from scratch. Our family all moved to Reading. The run-up to privatisation was a good time for a newcomer. Slowly I built up a team.
Our biggest project was to develop a daily scheduling system for the many pumps linked to the new London Water Ring Main. Our system won a major award and led to a talk at the Royal Society. But there were lighter moments too. The last picture below shows me during a visit to Danish colleagues, with a mermaid in Copenhagen.
But all good things come to an end. In 2006 I left the water industry, completed a PhD at Lancaster on the deeper meaning of water meter data then moved on to writing fiction.