“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”
-Carl Sagan
I’m a former Mechanical Engineer and Air Force Officer who’s decided that teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to teenagers and young adults is what I “do”. I’m a strong advocate of the importance of scientific and mathematical literacy in modern society, and a firm believer that technology — when developed and applied thoughtfully — can be one of the most powerful forces for good in the world.
The role models who best embody this philosophy? Sagan for the scientific literacy mission, Feynman for the standard that if you can’t explain it simply you don’t truly understand it, and Edison for the moonshot mindset — ‘I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work’ — and for proving that technology, persistently applied, can transform how humanity lives.
For me, both goals converge in the classroom — nurturing the next generation of builders and innovators, while ensuring the broader citizenry has the scientific literacy to understand and shape the world they’re building. Helping students succeed in STEM subjects isn’t just a career — it’s the front line of a cause worth fighting for.
That’s why I call myself a STEM Education Warrior.
I developed this educational philosophy and life mission during 4+ years of motivating young Chinese adults to learn (also known as “teaching”) Mechanical Engineering Technology in Shanghai, and have further consolidated it (and rediscovered the beauty of physics and mathematics at a more fundamental level) during the past 13+ years of teaching pre-university/post-16 A-level and IB programs, and my M.Ed in STEM Education studies at American College of Education from 2020-2024.
The technologies reshaping civilisation — renewable energy, autonomous transport, robotics, AI — are exactly the ones I want my students building fluency in. That intersection of technology and education is also where I’m doing my own most exciting work — exploring how tools like large language models and vibe coding can empower both teachers and students to build things that were previously out of reach. My direction of travel is CSTEM — educational robotics, app and product design, interactive simulations — while leveraging AI to pursue my own creative and entrepreneurial ambitions through the STEMlightenment platform and beyond.
The “Renaissance Man” part of my title refers to a variety of other skills and experiences that are hard to capture in one line. I studied Spanish in Buenos Aires and Mandarin Chinese in Nanjing (China), and am proficient in both. I spent 2 years in Nanjing teaching corporate English to engineers and scientific writing to doctors, as well as performing at corporate functions and events with an international group of musicians. I used to work as a Chivas Brand Ambassador, running bilingual whisky tasting sessions, and have occasionally taken on freelance academic editing work. I did the 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher training in 2011. I still do the occasional paid gig as a musician.
While the IB ecosystem remains my professional home, I’m increasingly drawn to opportunities at the intersection of teaching, technology and invention — whether that’s curriculum consultancy, resource development, technology projects, or supporting bold people who are building things that don’t exist yet. My ultimate goal as an educator is to inspire the next generation of mad scientists, rogue inventors, and maverick entrepreneurs who use technology to implement science fiction and solve real problems — and, as my capacity grows, to back a few of them too.
If any of that resonates, get in touch.
So what is STEMlightenment.com all about?
- Meaningful, cutting-edge STEM teaching and learning
- Thinking like a STEM Warrior – rationally, scientifically, Stoically and with a focus on solving problems
- Enlightenment through continual improvement, lifelong learning and ever-expanding horizons (this includes travel, music, language learning, growth mindset/abundance mentality, thinking entrepreneurially, etc.)
- Innovation, optimisation and synthesis – “connecting the dots”