Background

I remember describing myself a ‘failed vet’ early in my career since I hadn’t made it to veterinary college. Actually I didn’t try hard enough at school. ‘truth is, I was more interested in horse riding and pursuing life in ‘the great outdoors’ (funny … now I work with indoors with computers).

So … I enrolled for a Zoology degree course, which then became Genetics and Zoology, and it wasn’t long before my curiosity drew me into the research field of genetic toxicology, which eventually led to a PhD (by which time I would have qualified as a vet if I’d only tried harder at the start). Meanwhile horse eventing made way for off-road motorcycling.

After a few years of post-doctoral research in Cambridge and Bath I was appointed Lecturer in Cellular Pathology at the University of Bradford. And so it was that I settled in Yorkshire ….

I enjoy teaching enormously. University life opened many doors, including opportunities for external consultancy. Initially I pursued consultancy into predictive cancer chemotherpy testing as well as cell culture technologies (which is a viable alternative to animal testing, which I never did) and DNA amplification. However it wasn’t long before I was drawn into the rapidly advancing field of computer-mediated teaching and learning, getting involved at a national level in The Association for Learning Technology and acquiring a Certificate in Online Education along the way.

Pursuing media production in my private consultancy became a natural extension of my professional career which has evolved to include a deep understanding of information services in the not-for-profit, business and education environments.

In more recent years I have worked at the National Media Museum (where I appointed Head of Media Technology after creating the ‘Bradford Film Festival’ web site). Colin Appleyard Limited (where I was responsible for the company’s web presence and IT infrastructure) and the Hollybank Trust (where I was Head of Information, Communication and Assistive Technology).

Over the years I have been privileged to work alongside Nobel Laureates and film directors and have provided consultancy to companies as far afield as California and Ohio to London and Yorkshire in the UK. I have been an elected Trustee of The Association for Learning Technology and a national juror for the European Academic Software Awards, presided over the national launch of a virtual learning environment and spoken at the House of Lords and House of Commons.

Photography has always played an important part in my personal as well as professional life. ‘Kodachrome 25′ was an uncompromising teacher but the lessons learned served me well as an early adopter of digital photography. I’ve lost count of the hours I’ve spent working within Lightroom, PhotoShop and Dreamweaver (my current monitors have each recorded over 6000 hours of usage) but I like to think I’ve learned a lot along the way and have a lot to give.

Brian Boullier BSc PhD Cert Online Ed.