Paul Matthews

After finishing my degree here in Cambridge, I started work at the newly created Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre in 1994; an organisation located close by the city and now famous for decoding the Human Genome.  I was a part of that exciting project as a genome scientist and bioinformatician for a number of years before moving to work in the Genetics Directorate of GlaxoSmithKline, focussing on gene expression informatics.  I then returned to academia, working in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute, co-located on the Wellcome Genome Campus, as their Head of Industry Programmes.  (I have also spent 18 months working in a small ‘global’ genomics start-up company).   Having really enjoyed all aspects of the teaching that I did in each of those jobs, I re-trained as a Teacher of Sciences in 2007 here at Cambridge, and since then I have been having great fun teaching the sciences at the two state schools I worked in before moving to Abbey (I even got to teach both of my own children!).  In my previous school, where I worked for 10 years, I was quickly promoted within the science department and then to the position of Head of Upper School, responsible for the pastoral and academic support of ~360 students and their progression to 6th form studies.  I have been with Abbey College for 3 years as a Housemaster, I also teach Chemistry, responsible for the pastoral and academic support of the students in Zeus House.

When I’m not looking after students, I play, coach and umpire hockey, and spend (too much!) time playing golf.