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About Craig Mackay |
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I was born in Dundee, Scotland and educated at Perth Academy, Edinburgh University (BSc in physics) and at Cambridge University (PhD in radio astronomy, supervised by Prof Sir Martin Ryle FRS who won a Nobel Prize in 1974).
Since then I have undertaken research in the University of Cambridge and am presently Reader in the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge. My particular work there has been on the development of ultra-low light imaging detector systems for a wide range of applications including astronomy. I continue to be involved at the very leading edge of innovative astronomical instrument development. I was a member of the team who designed and built the Faint Object Camera for the Hubble Space Telescope and have published over 150 research papers. I lead a research team working particularly on a new technique that allows Hubble quality imaging from the ground called Lucky Imaging. There is more information available on my personal Web Site at the Institute of Astronomy, at: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~optics/people/cdm.htm , and on the Lucky Imaging work I am presently carrying out on: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~optics/Lucky_Web_Site/index.htm .
In 1985 I set up a company (AstroCam Ltd) to apply ultra-low light imaging technology to a variety of other applications including DNA sequencing, protein electrophoresis, electron microscopy, x-ray imaging and many other fields. I hold a number of patents in fields including electrophoresis and x-ray imaging. The company merged with two others and was ultimately sold to PerkinElmer Life Sciences.
My experiences in the company let me meet people working in a wide range of the physical and life sciences that lead to my interest and knowledge of these fields. Dealing with senior research workers in many different areas made it clear that although each had a detailed knowledge of their own particular field many were surprisingly ignorant of how their work fitted into other research programmes and particularly how their work fitted in to providing a much larger overview of what was important in that broader area. My interest in the field of human behaviour and evolution grew out of these and other experiences. I found that there were great inconsistencies and incompatibilities between the research going on particularly by evolutionary scientists and by social scientists, both groups believing that theirs was the only valid approach to understanding human behaviour and yet each blithely ignoring what was going on in the other field. It was a wish to find the consillience between these different areas that motivated this book.
My interest in the field of human behaviour was also increased by many conversations with my wife, Mel, whose work as a Counsellor for many years helped to expand many of the ideas developed in the book. |
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Site Updated on: September 30, 2008
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