What is your name and job title?

My name is Nick Hood and I am a Senior Teaching Fellow in Secondary Education.

Where do you work?

I work at the Moray House School of Education and Sport at the University of Edinburgh.

How did you get into your field?

I took the long way round. I spent some years in the military and aerospace before starting my own software business. Part of that business involved training others in programming and data manipulation, and that led me to become a physics and mathematics teacher. I moved into teacher education about eight years ago.

Where do you do work the best?

Honestly, I think my best work is in supporting people who find our programmes challenging. Part of my job is as a personal tutor, where I get to work one-to-one with people who struggle with aspects of our very intensive postgraduate courses. Sometimes this is more pastoral, but often it is about getting to grips with academic writing.

How long have you been using Mendeley? 

About eight years.

What were you using prior to Mendeley?

Good old manual methods. I just typed what I wanted on the page.

Why did you decide to become an Advisor?

A friend and colleague was our local Mendeley Advisor and when she hinted that she would retire, I thought I’d step up.

What researcher would you like to work with or meet, dead or alive?

A scientist who had an idea that saved millions of lives, Robert Watson-Watt. Or, if I am allowed a fictional researcher, Hari Seldon from Asimov’s Foundation series of stories.

What book are you reading at the moment?

Barthes, R. (1980) Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, Hill and Wang.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week?

How to take photographs in infrared.

What is the best part about working in research?

I like learning how to manipulate and present data for understanding – sometimes that is a matter of drawing a picture.

And the most challenging part about working in research?

Getting away from distractions that frustrate understanding of the thing you are trying to make sense of. We all know that moment when we can almost clearly see some complex idea, when we are so close that we can nearly touch it – and the email pings, or a knock at the door collapses it all like a house of cards.

What is the one thing you want people to know about Mendeley?

Mendeley is the smart choice for the complex task of managing your sources when writing for academic or professional purposes.

Do you have any advice for young researchers? 

Get organised early. Establish your workflow. Use tools that get out of the way of your research activities and your data.

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Find out more about Nick by following and viewing his Mendeley profile.

Interested in becoming a Mendeley Advisor yourself? Find out more about the Advisor Community here.