Hi, my name is Timothy David Longson, and this page
is about me, and my life.
My
first degree was BSc Genetics (Hons) which
I did at Leeds University (England).
I spent the second year of this degree on an exchange to a Canadian University called McMaster, which is in Hamilton (about half way between Niagara Falls and Toronto), where, amongst other things, I had the great privilege to work under the renowned Dr Jack Gauldie (Supervisor) and Dr Frank Graham (Co-supervisor). Under their expert eyes, along with the kind help of Peter Emtage, Kay, Duncan and Xeya, I genetically engineered, and rescued a virus, carrying a immunological gene, and tested it on a breast cancer model.
On the final year of my BSc (back at Leeds now) I had the privilege to work at St. James Hospital in Leeds (AKA "Jimmies" on Television) in the molecular biology research labs. There I was working on isolating a key gene thought to be one of the causing factors of the symptoms of Asthma, and from where I finished, a PhD student will take over with this gene, and special gene promoters, and try and find a treatment for Asthma.
You may have noticed that I have not named any genes - and I am afraid that until these works have been published, I can not.
I
have just finished doing an MSc in Computer Science at Sheffield University.
The official title is "Software Systems Technology" - although it covers
everything, its background is to teach how to be a systems analyst and
designer - i.e. teach everything from finding out what a customer wants,
to finding ways of improving their system, to designing a new systems and
building it, right the way through to providing the complete package.
While
at Sheffield University I decided that as this is to be my last "taught
course" year (any future education will be research based) that I would
like to get more involved with the University, and how it works.
To this end I ran for the position of Course Representative for 'MSc Software
Systems Technology' and 'MSc Software Systems & Parallel Processing'
(on the Staff-Student Liaison Committee)... and I won! To be the
best Rep I could, I went on a training course, including things like how
to get the best out of Committee meetings, and there I learned how the
rest of the University hierarchy works. As a result, I decided to
run for the Faculty of Pure Science Postgraduate Rep (one of the 2 reps
for the WHOLE of Pure Science - several THOUSAND students), and I won again!
This gave me a seat on the Faculty General Committee, the Faculty Teaching
Quality Committee, and the Faculty Library Committee, which basically
decide the fate of the various departments, as each Dept had its head sitting
on the committee also. And then, finally, as the need became apparent,
I stood for the Dept of Computer Science Rep (on the Teaching Committee),
and you guessed it, I got that position too!
