I matriculated from Brighton High School in 1965. I enjoyed my six years greatly and it is probably because of this very positive experience that I applied for and received an Education Department of Victoria Studentship which was a scholarship with teaching at the end of tertiary studies being required and I started at Monash University in 1966.
I am grateful to my Mathematics teacher in Form 6, Mrs Freitag, who took me for both Mathematics subjects which were then named Calculus an Applied Mathematics and Pure Mathematics and fostered my interest in the subject. All of the students were fond of the Headmaster, Mr George Stirling and the Senior Master Mr Cyril Hallet who were both outstanding leaders and set up the school with academic purpose being central.
I completed a BSc (Hons) and a PhD and started teaching in 1973 at Moreland High School in Coburg. I continued to teach in schools including eighteen years as Head of Mathematics at Scotch College in Melbourne. In 2004 I joined the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute at the University of Melbourne and worked on developing curriculum materials as well as on the Australian Curriculum when contracted to ACARA. My love of teaching took me back to teaching part time from 2014.
I have been and still am a principal author with the Cambridge University Press Senior Mathematics series. These books are used nationally. I have worked with the Australian Mathematics Trust as a volunteer for the past thirty years and helped take the Australian Mathematics Olympiad teams to Hong Kong, Toronto and Mumbai in the mid-nineties. I also worked as a consultant for the Maldives College of Higher Education through the Asian Development Bank.
In 1999 I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Monash University, recognising my contribution to mathematics education.
