Tell us a bit about your background

I’ve had a very interesting career in high-tech engineering and have become a world-recognised expert in complex systems. I’ve therefore gained insights into understanding how complex systems function, while seeing ways to make them work better and to anticipate and mitigate possible issues. This ability to see looming problems can be very useful but isn’t always comfortable – as Cassandra of the Greek myth Tale of Troy found out.

How did your career start?

After graduating from St Andrews I wanted to stay in Scotland, and career choices using my degree in physics were distinctly limited at the time. I was lucky to be able to get a really interesting job in Edinburgh because at the time lasers were the latest exciting new technology, just coming out of the lab into practical applications, and Ferranti (now Leonardo) had a lot of work in lasers and optical systems for defence applications. This led me into a fascinating career at the crossover between engineering, science and complex systems. I spent a year in London doing an MSc in Applied Optics at Imperial College, but otherwise I managed to stay based in Scotland throughout my life. Later in my career I spent a lot of time working in the South of England with a fair bit of international travel, mostly to Europe and the USA, but also to India, Asia and South America. In that time, I was awarded 8 patents on innovative optical systems of various sorts. 

I worked for 17 years at Ferranti, then was recruited by the company that used to be known as Barr and Stroud, based in Glasgow (now Thales Optronics). This gave me opportunities to expand into other areas of technology and complex systems and get involved in some really interesting civil projects. I spent several years working for Thales’ corporate HQ, working across the UK but still based in Scotland, and two and a half years seconded to a Senior Civil Service post running the Integration Authority in the Ministry of Defence in Bristol.

I’ve been married for over 35 years. My two grown-up children are both now working in Scotland but each started their career in England because they couldn’t see suitable opportunities for themselves here. Having seen more of the world, both made deliberate choices to move back to Scotland and found good jobs, much to our delight. 

How has your background impacted your impression of the challenges faced by Scotland in the future?

It helps me to see how everything is joined up, how everything affects everything else, and how a solution to one problem can make another one worse if it hasn’t been thought through properly. Working with systems teaches you how to break a big problem into manageable chunks; how to make sure that when everything’s ready, the chunks will fit together and work together to produce the desired effect with minimum downside – there’s always a downside because everything’s a trade-off. There will always be losers as well as winners in any change; but there are ways to manage most of the unavoidable problems to come up with the best compromise.

If people know all this, why do complex projects go wrong so often?

Seeing the problems ahead is one thing, communicating an understanding of them is the next step. But the really hard part is to convince people of the importance of timely action when it doesn’t fit with their narrative of how they think the world should work, or what matters to them. We saw this with the Covid crisis. While many could see the problem and knew what should be done, populist politicians dithered, and the longer they dithered, the worse the outbreak became, and the worse the economic consequences were. The climate crisis is similar, only even more difficult because it’s happening more slowly and there is less connection between any particular individual’s actions and the consequences of them.

How do you feel about the climate crisis? Is it real, and can we do anything about it?

I’ve seen with my own eyes how much ice has disappeared from the Alps. So yes, it’s real. Even back in the 1980s, there was far less ice on Alpine peaks than you saw in photos taken in the 1930s. This, plus understanding the physics of what was going on and having the systems-understanding to see how different earth systems interact, meant that I could see the climate crisis coming quite a long time before it really entered public consciousness. Because of this, I am aware of the specifics of green issues in a way that many others may not be; but my knowledge of the science and engineering issues also makes me optimistic that we can still mitigate the worst of the potential problems. Mind you, that’s only possible if people and countries can work together the way we have tried to work together to deal with COVID-19. The longer we defer action, the harder it will be.

You recently became a grandparent. How does that impact your vision of what you want the world, and Scotland, to look like in the future?

It makes you think and reflect what sort of world we’re bequeathing to future generations. I am very unlikely to be around in fifty years, but hopefully my grandchildren will be. So suddenly, that 50 year timeframe, and beyond, really means something, really matters. I want Scotland to offer our young folk good opportunities for careers and lifestyle, so they don’t have to move away for career reasons if they prefer to live here. I want the world to get its act together on climate change sooner rather than later because I don’t want them to be living through a climate crisis. And I’m very worried by the surge in popularity of right-wing populist politicians promising simple solutions to complex problems that they don’t actually know how to solve. To every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, attractive, and wrong! 

Democracy is complex, human society is getting more complex and interconnected, and if we don’t give people the education and learning skills they need to deal with that complexity they will reject it and go back to last century’s solutions, which were simple, brutal and wrong. My parents’ generation were involved in a terrible war. As they die out I’m worried we are forgetting the lessons they learned. I very much hope that we don’t.

You are an avid mountaineer and hiker, correct?

Yes, I’ve always liked to spend time outdoors, and I was a very active mountaineer when younger, climbing all the Munros – it might have been called an obsession – and doing quite a lot of rock climbing and a little winter climbing. Now I do more skiing and sailing, and have dabbled in kayaking. I’m also interested in birds and keen on photography.  

You clearly have a passion for the natural world. Do you think it is possible to encourage reforestation and still maintain attractive landscape?

Absolutely, if you’re sensible about it. Mixed deciduous woodland makes the countryside look more attractive, not less. Even mature natural conifer woodland does this. Woodland can absorb far more visitors than an equivalent piece of open country. For that, the ground needs to be reasonably dry, and you need paths through the trees. Then it’s fine. And nobody complains about the quality of scenery in wooded countries.

Since Scotland’s tree line is only at about 600 metres, the higher hills will always be clear of trees, and the important thing for leisure use is to have a good path network through the woods so there is access to the high tops; and to have plenty of forest glades where people can picnic, camp, look at the flowers, and just sit in the sun. Reforesting and rewilding needs to work for everyone. If you do it right, everyone gains. Even farming can work well among trees – we’re not talking thick spruce forests here, of course – if you use the right methods.

One of the problems we have in Scotland is that half of the country’s land is owned by just 500 people, and anyone from anywhere in the world can buy land here. On the other hand, we do have the ‘right to roam’ – or more accurately the right of responsible access, as it was formalised in law in 2005 – to walk over open land if you’re not violating residents’ privacy or causing damage or disruption. I think this free access to the countryside is one of the best things about living in Scotland.