 |
I'm a researcher in Computer Science at the University of Birmingham in the UK. I also do a bit of teaching, mainly in areas related to my research as well as in the basics of Computer Science, such as programming.
Born in the dying days of the 70's, I'm currently living in Stirchley in Birmingham. I was born not too far away in the sacred grove of Wellington, Shropshire.
|
I spent my undergraduate days at the University of Leicester and was subsequently elected President of the Students' Union there, a sabbatical position, for two years. Until recently they kept various pages about my time spent there online, but they unfortunately seem to have disappeared now.
After that, I spent time working in local government (in Yorkshire), as a ski instructor briefly (in Canada) and in an MEP's office (in West Bromwich), but I eventually decided to return to academia. I subsequently completed a Master's degree in Natural Computation and a PhD in evolutionary economics-inspired computation under the supervision of Professor Xin Yao and Dr Paul Marrow. I don't write about my work much on this site, but you can read more about it at prlewis.com.
I think that being aware and having an opinion is important, and when I make time I'm also an activist involved in various campaigns. I'm mainly interested in the environment (in the general sense), peace, education, social justice, freedom and privacy (particularly in relation to the domains of computing and society), respect and human and animal rights. I've been involved in People and Planet, have been a fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe, a member of Liberty and am an ongoing supporter of Greenpeace. All of these groups do really fantastic work. I've also been a trustee of the University of Birmingham Guild of Students since they became a charitable organisation in 2008.
I also try to do my bit for my GNU/Linux distribution of choice, ArchLinux. I'm one of their elected Trusted Users, which means I maintain some packages and help to steer the direction of Arch's famed Arch User Repository (AUR).
I also love being outdoors, especially walking around on high peaks, and am a keen photographer too. Pretty much all the photos I deem not too awful can be found on my Flickr page. You can also take a look at the photography pages on this site, through the link at the top.
Finally, I'm a great believer in localism, sustainability and being in touch with one's impact on the world. In practice, a lot of this is manifested through environmentalism, such as attempting to reduce my consumption of stuff. I also sometimes grow my own veg.
