Mike Woolridge
Thursday 23 May 2024
Mike Woolridge recenty wrote to our biology department and they kindly forwarded it for oue news section. I have copied it below.I am writing as an Old Tettenhallian, because I was a pupil at the school from 1958-1967 with an especial interest in Biology. My initial love was for Natural History, which was fostered, the staff members who ran the scouting groups (I still have my year-long Nature Diary completed for, I think, a Woodcraftsman Badge). I succeeded in Biology at TC under the tutelage of ‘Ernie’ Mason, although I feel I was successful in spite of him, rather than because of him (he drew blood by syringe from a vein in my forearm when teaching blood to the class – H&S ALERT! Oh yes, and we kept a Fruit Bat as a pet in the shed behind the Biology Class Room – no reason). Nonetheless, I failed to secure the requisite A-levels (in 1967) to go straight to University, but I was then offered a Preliminary year at Cardiff University, to study Zoology, instead of re-sitting a year later at TC – that proved to be a very wise decision as I matured both intellectually and emotionally during the extra year. After 4 years there (in 1971) I was successful in securing a 1st Class (Hons) in Zoology, then went on to do my D. Phil at Oxford under the supervision of Dr Richard Dawkins (of ‘The Selfish Gene’ & ‘The God Delusion’ fame). I completed my D Phil in 1976 and entered a post-doctoral research career, first with Prof John Fentress at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, before returning to the UK in 1979.I spent a short time back in the Animal Behaviour Research Group, before securing a research post with the Dept of Psychology at Durham University (supervised by Robert Drewett); although the project was based at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford (under the auspices of J. David Baum). The net result is that for the past 37 years I have actively researched the topic of Breastfeeding, becoming something of a National and International expert on the topic (I was happier being ‘a big fish in a small pond, rather than a small fish in a big pond’). I retired from the University of Leeds in 2016, but now, aged 73 years, I am still doing a small amount of consultancy work for a firm called Emulait™ (based in the US). As recently as September this year I published a manuscript, which was the 1st paper, in the 1st issue of a new journal: Academia Medicine – not bad for a zoologist with a founding interest in Nature Study! https://www.academia.edu/journals/4/academia_medicine/articles/10.20935/AcadMed6111/article If you have 90min to spare, you might even want to look at this YouTube video about my role with emulait™, and the outcome of a close collaboration between Product Design and Medicine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M95gpHbYhKM My father, James Woolridge was, and my older brother, Jeremy Woolridge still is, on the Board of Governors at Tettenhall College. I currently live outside Harrogate, North Yorkshire where, in Spring & Summer, I can hear the calls of Curlew; these remind me of the ‘Romany Books’ read to me at Primary School, which I believe sparked my original interest in Natural History. I am also able to fulfil my second loves, walking my dog and photographing wild Red Deer on Brimham Moor (next to NT Brimham Rocks). With my sincere goodwill & best wishes to you, Mike Woolridge