Andrew started at NPL in 1986 having previously worked as a graphic designer and botanist. He combined his interests in physics, art and psychology by working in the measurement of colour. His first task was to build a telespectroradiometer tracing visual display colour calibrations to the national scale, enabling faithful colour reproduction for information, safety, security and entertainment. Beyond colour, he developed systems to measure reflectance, transmittance, gloss, haze, stability of standards and ran several customer-facing calibration facilities. His answer to the question ‘what was the best thing you ever built?’ is a cat shininess measuring device. As metrology of visual aspects matured, he jumped at the chance to run NPL’s Outreach programme full time, quickly developing a cohort of hundreds of Science Ambassadors, personally training and mentoring them to help with outreach activities.
Working closely with numerous NPL colleagues, Andrew has inspired people from all walks of life – annually he reaches over 70,000 people through an average of 200 activities. In 2024, he delivered his 4,000th outreach event. His largest ‘live’ audience at a single event was an online talk watched by 20,000 students.
Andrew has developed and hosted many impactful activities such as the NPL Water Rocket Challenge and NPL Academy, he has created and launched educational posters, hands-on demonstrations, and filmmaking competitions. His passion for filmmaking has won awards and his world’s smallest snowman video is NPL's most popular YouTube video with over half a million views.
In 2019 Andrew was awarded an MBE for services to STEM.
Email Andrew at Outreach