After several years of building hot-air balloons for Richard Branson at Lindstrand Balloons, he graduated from the University of Stirling with first class honours in psychology. After a brief career as a rock-star supporting (now) famous bands such as Snow Patrol and Biffy Clyro, and less well-known acts such as Wilt and China Drum, he decided that psychology was actually what he wanted to do after all. He worked as a research assistant at the University of Nottingham and obtained his PhD in visual perception in 2006. Since then he has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and at Bradford School of Optometry & Vision Science in England and in 2012 he was a visiting research fellow at Buskerud University College in Kongsberg, Norway.