We are delighted to introduce Ken Hamilton as the newest member of the MSDS team. In this blog post Ken introduces himself and the experience he brings to the team.
I am a geophysicist with experience of working in archaeology and civil engineering, but a lot of my professional career has been spent working in heritage management. I went to the University of Bradford to study Archaeological Sciences and ended up staying there to study an MSc in Archaeological Prospection and then a PhD in archaeological geophysics, looking at the archaeological evaluation of urban and brown field sites. I worked for an engineering contractor doing non-destructive investigation on a range of structures before returning to archaeology to build an archaeological deposit model of a historic coastal town. Since then I have been a local authority archaeological adviser and a listing adviser in the Nation Listing and Marine Team at Historic England.
Throughout my career I have kept closely engaged with the geophysical community both on shore and offshore – I was a founder member of the International Society for Archaeological Prospection and the (sadly now disbanded) CIfA Geophysics Special Interest Group and published on sampling strategies, data quality and the importance of ground truthing.
As a former county archaeological officer, I was involved in the scoping and screening of environmental impact assessments for NSIPs and planning applications, the scoping and monitoring of archaeological works as part of the development process, strategic planning and have appeared as an expert witness at several public inquiries.
At Historic England I was responsible for designation of heritage assets both on shore and offshore and working on a number of projects, again on and offshore and was the Historic England lead for Heritage Harbours. I also worked as a Heritage Crime Adviser.
As a geophysicist and heritage manager, I don’t get to specialise in a particular period or aspect of archaeology, but where possible I have concentrated on the history of technology, particularly with respect to transport.
Outside of work I volunteer for the East of England Ambulance Service – I am the team leader for my local Community First Responder group, providing emergency care and basic life support to patients between them calling 999 and the arrival of an ambulance.
