Professional background

My research interests come from training and employment in the preservation of archaeological and historic artefacts – these have been located in art galleries, museums, cathedrals or still submerged underwater on ancient shipwrecks.

Human-made artefacts are often collectively called cultural heritage materials. They help form our understanding of what it is to be human. They testify our past, which made the societies and built environments we live in today.

A 1000+ year old metal, glass and stone brooch with textile pseudomorph: before and after treatment (images courtesy of employment at IRRAP-Conservare)

Cultural heritage materials support significant heritage tourism economies in the United Kingdom and the wider European Union.

Sandie Dawe, Chief Executive of VisitBritain in “Valuing heritage tourism” (Investing in success Heritage and the UK tourism economy. Heritage Lottery Fund, March 2010).

International cultural heritage conservation organisations

• International Council of Museums: Committee for Conservation 
• International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property
• International Council on Museums and Sites
• Europa: Cultural Heritage
• International Institute for Conservation
• International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage