Short biosketch of Alastair

Hello!

My name is Alastair Philp. I have been a Community Councillor in Marchmont and Sciennes since 2002, and am now the community council's rep on the Edinburgh South-Central Neighbourhood Partnership Board.

By day I am a Programme Principal at NHS National Services Scotland. That means I lead a team who assist government and health professionals to access and interpret health statistics. We also help develop new ways of getting doctors, nurses, other care professionals and managers to communicate. All this supports more joined-up care for patients in the NHS across Scotland. My main responsibility at present is Genetics.

I was born at the Simpson pavilion (recently demolished) of the old Royal Infirmary in 1970. I grew up in Marchmont and lived here until I left town in 1988 to go to University in Cambridge. After three years there, five more in Dundee as a graduate student, and three in California as a research fellow (molecular genetics and cell biology/ cancer research) I returned to Edinburgh in 2000. After a short stint working for a think tank/ consultancy I joined the NHS in 2001.

I am now back living in the flat I grew up in, which I bought from my father just before he died in 2005. I am married with two small children who enjoy visiting the swings at the links as much as I did more than 30 years ago!

If you have anything you wish raised at the Neighbourhood Partnership please contact me at alastair dot philp at gmail dot com.

Short Bio of Hugh

I'm Hugh, the Secretary of the Community Council. Someone suggested the other day that it would be a great addition to the blog to have a short bio about the office bearers - maybe with a photo for each of us. So with that in mind I'm going to subject you to a brief intro to me - the more interesting ones will come later when the rest of the office bearers tell you about themselves.

Normally, I'm a student at the University of Edinburgh, doing a PhD Computer Science. I've been doing that for a year now and I must say I love being a student again. There's a fair amount of work involved but the truly fantastic thing is that I can pretty much dictate for myself where my research goes (I won't bore you to death with what I'm researching - and be careful asking nerds what they do, you run the risk they just might tell you). So by day, you'll either find me down at the King's Buildings slaving away in a gloomy office in the basement or, more likely, at home, hooked up virtually (don't tell my professor).

Before the PhD I was a research assistant down there for a while, spending some time deciding what the right thing to do my PhD in would be. Before that I worked a Software Architect in Texas and as a developer with Microsoft in Seattle.

I came to Edinburgh first in '92 to go to Uni and have stayed ever since. I fell in love with the city straight away. My wife and I still live in the same flat that we moved into - along with three tiny kittens, at the moment.

I've been part of the community council since February 2007. The city council had made some changes to the parking situation and overnight messed with my life. The community council offered a forum for those of us so afflicted to talk about it and plan to fix it. We got to meet city councillors who offered their assistance, advice and they directly supported us in our fight to get our problems solved. It was hard work but in the end the council sorted us out - local democracy in action!

Since then, well, it seemed natural to get involved and help out in the other issues of the area. There's so much going on I had never even known about and the Community Council is a hub for all that happens in Marchmont and Sciennes. It's been really fun working with in this team!

As secretary I maintain this website and set up the meetings every month. So if you've got any questions about what goes on with us, I'm probably a good place to start. My email is over on the side bar, along with the other members'.

Cheers, I hope that hasn't bored you all to death and I'll see you at the next meeting,

Hugh.


BTW, if any non-office bearing members would like to introduce themselves this way as well, please, just drop me an email.