I have spent a lifetime working in higher education as an academic, manager and researcher. In recent years I have been involved in international student recruitment and international transnational education partnerships. My academic background is in environmental psychology and I completed a PhD at the University of St Andrews on the psychological and aesthetic effects of the cleaning and soiling of building facades. For many years I was a member of the Masonry Conservation Research Group at the Robert Gordon University, investigating the effects of cleaning sandstone buildings in Scotland.

My Fellowship investigated the conservation of Raj buildings in South and Southeast Asia. During my Fellowship I travelled widely in Asia, working with the British Council to give talks about conservation research work and meeting conservation NGOs and others looking at the issues of built heritage conservation.

In parts of Asia built heritage conservation is not given the priority and importance it commands in the UK, yet built heritage in Asia from the Raj and other historical periods has huge potential for cultural and sustainable tourism in these regions.