Why I have been a technical nerd all my life? My natural curiosity.
I was fortunate to of been the product of parents who were totally in-tune with their natural environment, I like to think of them as true naturalists. I thank them everyday for their genes but even more, how they taught me to recognise the world around me, from the tiniest worm to the 90 metre tall old growth trees. By the age of 7 I knew all the names of the plants and animals, how the seasons 'worked', and how all life was all interrelated. Reducing pollution is not new! My father in the 1950's was part of a team that saw the clean up of Elliot Harbour (Seattle, Wa) by halting the inputs from pulp mills and slaughterhouses which were killing the salmon runs.
At 6 years old I built my first radio, a superheterodyne AM receiver, by the age of 10 I was experimenting with cinemascope screens for photo slides and home movies and during my teens I was the fringe area television guru in the remote country area where I grew up in western Washington, USA.
Tertiary and post-graduate education enhanced my already well developed natural scientific curiosity to participate fully in technology research. In 1968/9 I initiated the first private company investigations of the use of multi-spectral photography for mineral exploration (with good success) and the application of thermal infra-red imaging for exploration and in for environmental issues (i.e. such as mapping of sewage outfalls off Sydney and Newcastle and power generations stations).
As a practicing geophysicist of 40 years experience I have been fully engaged in new technologies & instrumentation especially that of moving from analog to digital recording and interpretation. I relished this opportunity to be a true applied scientist testing the veracity of new technologies and instruments. During the intense uranium period of the 1970’s and early 80’s the innovative use of radiation detection gave us an understanding of just how much of a natural envelop of radiation we all live within as well as the benefits and hazards associated with uranium mining and nuclear energy.
By the 80’s governments and private interests were well into satellite imaging of the earth - and we applied these new tools for exploration purposes as well as environmental monitoring. Mapping and the new science of GIS (geospatial information systems) were introduced and practiced that enable layering of data and new interpretations possible demonstrating the environmental consequences of such things as land degradation and the need for safer land management practices.
As the digital age blossomed so too have new technologies. Some work and some do not. The push to live more responsibly on this planet has lead to the development of many wonderful new applications of technologies to better utilise resources. Many so-called ‘must do’ environmental solutions are simply too expensive and impracticable to apply on a large scale, but can be applied on a personal scale.
I was fortunate to have a background and experience and affording me the ability to recognised the technologies of most value be-it for our normal course of living or converting to a more ecological sound and sustainable future.
Photo of Lee (in red) with his son-in-law, Tim