I am currently working in my third post at the Department for Transport, as a FastStreamer.

I am now working on a project as part of the current UK Presidency of the EU, which lasts from July-December 2005. We are aiming to create a joint action plan at European level, to increase the numbers of young people who join the merchant navy as a career. The aim is to solving some of the skills shortages which the industry will face across Europe in the next decade. At the moment, I am constantly going backwards and forwards to Brussels, but hopefully we will secure Council Conclusions at the Transport Council on 5 December, that will be actioned across Europe in 2006 and beyond.

Previously, I was a member of the Crossrail Review Team, which looked at the plans submitted for a Crossrail scheme. This is a way of connecting major London rail terminals, so that trains can run across the centre of London. The Crossrail Review assess the proposals for value for money and affordability, including financial, engineering, economics and project management aspects. On 20 July 2004, the Secretary of State, announced that in the light of the Review Team's findings, the Government wishes to go forward with the project via a Hybrid Bill.

My first post was on the Bill Team to steer what is now the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 along its passage through Parliament. This Bill/Act incorporates various aspects of transport safety, such as the creation of a Rail Accident Investigation Branch (as recommended by Lord Cullen after the Ladbroke Grove disaster), and introduction of alcohol testing for airline pilots and boat captains. For this job I spent a large mount of time talking to ministers and MPs in the House of Commons.

Over the academic years 2001-2003, I was in Paris, studying for the postgraduate Diplôme at Sciences Po, formally known as the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. I specialised in International Trade, both the legal side (WTO and GATT law), and the economics. Apart from that, the wonderful course here in Sciences Po allowed me to do international relations, macroeconomics, law, defence studies and negotiation skills - which is something I don't think I would be able to do in the UK.

My funding source was the Entente Cordiale scholarships scheme, which is a bilateral programme between the British and French governments. Many thanks to the French Republic for your generosity!

Previously, I did a BA in Modern History at Hertford College, Oxford . My specialisation there was in Imperial history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in Africa and India. If you want, you can read some of my masterpieces on this website, by clicking here. Studying history was probably the reason that I started collecting old maps - particularly of these regions, but also Eastern Europe.