I’m Michael, and I’m excited to start the second year of my journey as a UKMT Enrichment Mentor.

I retired from a 44-year career in the international oil and gas industry a year ago. During that time, I worked for British, Dutch, Austrian and South African companies and two small consultancies. My profession was Petroleum Engineering, which is the discipline concerned with designing, monitoring, and adjusting field development to achieve the optimum oil or gas recovery from underground reservoirs. It involves the acquisition and detailed data analysis (much of which is sparse and noisy) followed by model calibration and forward simulation using sophisticated commercial modelling software. While not precisely utilising mathematics, this discipline requires high numeracy.

Before starting my oil & gas career, I studied Mathematics at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. I specialised in Applied Mathematics (e.g. Fluid Dynamics, Quantum Mechanics), but looking back, I think my true love was more in Pure Mathematics (Algebra and Analysis). I still have about a dozen mathematical textbooks dating back to my undergraduate studies (they are nearly 50 years old!).

Twenty-four years after graduating from Cambridge, I decided to challenge myself to “see whether I could still do Maths.” I therefore enrolled in a Master’s study programme with The Open University, and from 2003 to 2008, I completed one Maths module each year. I found it quite traumatic sitting exams again after so long a gap, but I’m pleased to say that I eventually obtained my MSc and even obtained a distinction in a few modules.

The other highlight of my Maths career is that 1976 I participated in the British Mathematical Olympiad and was “Highly Commended”.

Although my working career was more in Engineering than Maths, I have always loved reading Math books and challenging myself with some of the exercises. Now that I have retired, I have the opportunity to reconnect properly with Maths, and in particular, to help young students discover this excellent subject.