Curriculum Vitae
John Bland

Personal

• Name: John Bland
• Date of Birth & Nationality: 18th October 1975, British
• Address: 100 Abingdon Road, Walton, Liverpool L4 9SL
• Email & Mobile: j.bland@third-bird.co.uk, 07906 007365

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Condensed Matter Physics, University of Liverpool (2002)
• Master of Physics Degree (2:2), University of Liverpool (1998)
• 4 A Levels and 8 GCSEs, Boston Grammar School (1990-94)
• Radiation Safety Training, Open University (2003)

Employment

• February 2005 - July 2005: Administrator in the Student Registration & Enquiry Service, Open University, handling brochure requests, database management and student emails.
• July 2004 - February 2005: Studying wildlife photography and fieldcraft.
• August 2003 - July 2004: Research Fellow, Planetary and Space Sciences Institute, Open University. Mössbauer Spectroscopy Scientist on the Beagle2 Mars Lander Project.

Skills

Information Technology

• Office Suites (MS Office, StarOffice) and general IT skills. 65WPM accurate typing speed.
• Photo-manipulation and digital photograph enhancement. Gimp, NeatImage, ImageMagick.
• Programming and code maintenance using FORTRAN, BASIC and C. Bourne Shell Scripting.
• Logical Markup for documentation and website creation: HTML + PHP; L^ATEX2_e.
• Linux system administration: Specifying, installing and maintaining small networks and servers.
• 4 years+ experience with various versions of Linux, Windows, RISC OS and Solaris.
• Use of TCP/IP, Apache, FTP, Samba, BIND, Postfix, NIS/NFS, Bridging, Firewalls.

Physics

• Experimental Condensed Matter Physics. Mössbauer Spectroscopy and SQUID Magnetometry.
• Collaborative research on magnetic thin films and multilayers, and a broad range of materials.
• Management of a Condensed Matter Physics laboratory, and related equipment such as cryostats, pumps, detectors and radioactive sources.
• Teaching support and laboratory demonstration covering mathematics, IT and experimentation.

Other

• Digital photography: macro to telephoto wildlife shots, landscape and composite images.

Experience

• February 2005 - July 2005 : Administration in the Student Registration & Enquiry Service at the Open University. I processed requests for brochures, course reservations and password resets via email, voicemail and letter. I also performed maintenance on the student database records.
• July 2004 - February 2005 : Freelance wildlife photography, mostly bird portraits and macro fungi and insects. Producing prints, greetings cards, gifts etc for direct sale.
• August 2003 - July 2004 : Principal Mössbauer Spectroscopy data analyst on the Beagle2 Mars Lander project at the Open University. My responsibilities also included equipment acquisition, documentation and promoting awareness of the Mössbauer technique. After the loss of Beagle2 I was involved with preliminary Hypervelocity Impact experiments on spacecraft materials using a Light Gas Gun.
• November 2001 - August 2003 : Specified, installed and maintained a group level Linux/Windows network for the Condensed Matter Physics Group, University of Liverpool. I was responsible for system administration, security, user support and training.
• October 1998 - February 2002 : Maintenance of the University of Liverpool's Mössbauer Spectroscopy laboratory, including construction of spectrometers.
• Ported NORMOS/DIST Mössbauer Analysis suite from MSDOS to Linux and extended the code to fit the requirements of the local users.
• Designed and built the CMP@Liverpool website (http://www.cmp.liv.ac.uk/) and produced the content of the Mössbauer Spectroscopy Discussion Group UK website
  (http://www.rsc.org/lap/rsccom/dab/dalt005.htm).

Personal Interests

My main hobby is computing, both in working on hardware and software for myself and friends, and using the technologies to enhance my other interests. I have recently taken up wildlife photography (mostly birds) and I am discovering the power of digital photography and photomanipulation to produce an online gallery. I have long been an avid reader of Science Fiction, as well as mainstream fiction and literature.

I have broad musical tastes from classical to contemporary. I am slowly mastering the tin whistle and ocarina which is also opening up the world of musical typesetting to me, something which complements my enjoyment of L^ATEX typesetting. I keep fit by cycling, for both fun and transport, and walking in the countryside, usually trying to photograph something elusive.

Publications

• Magnetic Interactions on the tin sites in the tin-doped ferromagnetic superconductor Ru$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$Sr$_{2}$GdCu$_{2}$O$_{8}$.
  J P Attfield, F J Berry, J Bland, A M Beesley, A C McLaughlin and M F Thomas, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 No 6 (2004) 955-61
• Cation Coordination in Oxychloride Glasses.
  J A Johnson, D Holland, J Bland, C E Johnson and M F Thomas, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 No 6 (2003) 755-64
• Studies of Rare-Earth/Iron and Actinide/Iron multilayers.
  M F Thomas, G S Case, J Bland, A Herring, W G Stirling, S Tixier, P Boni, R C C Ward, M R Wells and S Langridge, Hyperfine Interactions 141/142 (2002) 471 - 76
• Magnetic nano granularity and spin glass behaviour in mechanically alloyed Fe$_{35}$Al$_{50}$B$_{15}$.
  J A de Toro, M A Lolez de la Torre, J M Riveiro, J Bland, J P Goff and M F Thomas, Accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Physics
• A Mössbauer study of DyFe$_{2}$, YFe$_{2}$ and HoFe$_{2}$ thin films and multilayers.
  J Bland, M F Thomas, M R Wells and R C C Ward, Physica Status Solidi 189 (2002) 919 - 21
• Magnetic anisotropy studies in Ce/Fe and U/Fe multilayers
  M F Thomas, G S Case, J Bland, C A Lucas, A Herring, W G Stirling, P Boni, S Tixier, R C C Ward, M R Wells and S Langridge, Physica Status Solidi 189 (2002) 537 - 43
• Mössbauer study of the superspin glass transition in nanogranular Al$_{49}$Fe$_{30}$Cu$_{21}$.
  J A de Toro, M A lopez de la Torre, J M Riveiro, J Bland, J P Goff and M F Thomas, Physical Review B, 64 (2001) 224421 - 6
• Redox processes in Sb-containing mixed oxides used in oxidation catalysis. I. Tin dioxide assisted antimony oxidation in solid state.
  M Calderaru, M F Thomas, J Bland and D Spranceana, Applied Catalysis A: General. 209 (2001) 383 - 90
• Mössbauer effect study of off-centre atoms in IV-VI semiconductors.
  J Bland, M F Thomas, V A Virchenko, V S Kuzmin and T M Tkachenko, Semiconductors 35 (2001) 15 - 20
• Tin Germanate Glasses.
  D Holland, M E Smith, I J F Poplett, J A Johnson, M F Thomas and J Bland, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 293-295 (2001) 175 - 181
• Temperature Dependent Mössbauer Study at Sn Sites in Some IV-VI Semiconductors Containing Off-Center Atoms.
  J Bland, M F Thomas and T M Tkachenka, Physica Status Solidi 221 617 - 24
• Off-Center Sn Atoms in PbSnTeSe Studied by the Mössbauer Effect.
  J Bland, M F Thomas and T M Tkachenka, Hyperfine Interactions 131 (2000) 61 - 65
• Magnetic Anisotropy in Multilayers.
  M F Thomas, J Bland, G S Case, J A Hutchings and O Nikolov, Hyperfine Interactions 126 (2000) 377 - 86