Dr Nathan English is a lecturer in the Applied Environmental Sciences and is also the Discipline Lead for the Bachelor of Agriculture. Nathan, who is based in Townsville, regularly teaches at the Rockhampton Campus and is currently conducting research on the study of how environmental variables affect Earth-surface processes and natural materials over multiple scales of time and distance. Born in Portland, Oregon, Nathan has been at the receiving end of a stranger’s kindness and has even met US President Barack Obama.
What was a recent highlight of your life?
Hiking Hinchinbrook Island with my partner Claire and climbing (ok, being pulled up) Bunny Buckets Buttress in the Blue Mountains with/by my friend Nick.
What is the best thing about being at CQUni?
I really enjoy the focus that the faculty and staff at CQUni put on teaching, learning and research.
What do you like most about the work arrangements at CQUni?
The flexibility that distance learning gives not only to students but to faculty and staff as well. I can literally give a lecture to my students from any campus across Australia with a quick call to TaSAC (thanks David and Liam and the rest of the team!) and an ISL theatre. The technology support for distance at CQUni is, I think, hands down the best in Australia.
What is the best thing about your CQUni campus?
I’m amazed at how fast the Townsville campus is growing and really pleased it’s becoming an important part of the city fabric. We’re a two-university town now – the students love it and so do the locals.
Describe the greatest moment of your life so far?
My bus rolling off the road in north-western Bangladesh. The kindness of strangers afterwards to a foreigner in a strange land, unable to speak the language, completely lost and vulnerable, put me on the receiving end of the universal humanity of empathy, kindness and positive action in the service of those human strengths. I’ll never forget it.
Who was your childhood hero and why?
My moms, who both endured prejudice and horrible discrimination as they fought hard for gay and lesbian rights in Oregon. The outcome of that fight, and many like it across the US, has been incredibly positive for Oregonians and America.
If your office was burning down, what would be the one thing you grabbed on your way out the door?
My iced coffee in my aluminium “Big Cup of Science” (the laptop is backed up every day, the cup is irreplaceable).
