By David Tingley

If you were lucky enough to be given a copy of The Guinness Book of World Records for Christmas this year, then you may have already read about this month’s guest on page 130.

Mark Gasson grew up in Lindfield. You could say he’s ‘born and bred’. He went to the old Junior School, Oathall Community College and studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A Level down the road at Haywards Heath College. “I always enjoyed science,” Mark explains. “My father is an engineer and I used to love going to work with him occasionally as a child.” That said, when he left school he was none the wiser about what he actually wanted to do. A ‘state-of-the-art’ careers computer program suggested working as a baker!

In 1995 Mark left the confines of West Sussex to study Cybernetics at the University of Reading. “In many ways,” Mark continued, “I felt an affinity with Reading because its large leafy campus reminded me of my old home in Sussex.”

After successfully completing his Degree he was invited to stay on to do a PhD at the University. He did so and, working closely with Professor Warwick at Reading, his thesis explored connecting the human nervous system to a computer so that the Professor could feel what a robotic hand was touching.

Read the full article on page 22 of the March 2014 issue.