A Day in the Life: Head of School

Day in the Life interview with Head of School Professor Mike Benton

Professor Mike Benton
  • What do you normally do before work?

My ideal breakfast would be a kipper or a haggis, but I don’t usually get that I must admit, so a leisurely breakfast where I read the paper, do the crossword and come to work.

  • What is the first thing that you do when you arrive at the LSB?

I kill emails when I arrive. There are usually around 50 emails that have come in, I get these down very quickly, so I apologise to anybody if they have sent an email first thing, I just skim past it with all the spam and all the other stuff that comes through. I then look through my diary to see what is coming up and prepare for meetings, lectures and things like that.

  • Briefly, describe a typical day at work and any interesting things to point out that other members of staff may not know.

It is very difficult to say, and I think everybody will say that there is no such thing as a typical day.

I manage to keep some days clear for research. It is a huge pleasure to be able to get on with projects such as working on mass extinctions, dinosaurs, and all the things I love to do. I often speak to students, masters and PhD’s to find out how they are getting on and to help with their writing, planning, booking visits to museums and those kinds of things.

But at the moment being head of the department I attend a lot of meetings and I have to ask people what on earth all these meetings are. I try to delete as many of them as I can, I go to things and sit there and wonder why I am there sometimes, but there is often an opportunity to speak up for the School of Biological Sciences, so I always do that.

  • What is your favourite part of the day?

I guess my favourite part of the day is after 17:00 because then things become quiet. If you stay on until 18:00 then that is an hour without meetings and without people knocking on the door, a very good moment.

  • Tell us an interesting fact about yourself?

Because I do a lot of fieldwork in China, I go to China maybe once or twice a year and of course being polite one eats what one is given so I have eaten a variety of turtles or terrapins I suppose they are. The most unusual thing I have had to eat was a bit of the larynx of a cow which was a bit like eating a sort of faintly meaty plastic.

  • What is your favourite way to spend your weekends/favourite hobbies?

At the weekend I love to be in my garden which has lots of trees. I love climbing around in the trees when my wife is out and trimming them and cutting the huge hedges, and generally just gardening is a nice fun thing to do.

  • If you could go to any place in the world, where would you go?

I would love to go to Antarctica sometime, I have never been there, and I think many people would say the same. I suppose it is kind of easier to get to every other continent and I have been to every other continent as it happens, but Antarctica would be fun. It’s cold and full of penguins – what could be better than that?

  • Finally, tell us why you love working here!

Well, I love working at the University of Bristol in the Life Sciences building, because you can do what you like. I just love it. I come and go when I like and do what I like and I am getting paid to do my hobby; it’s fantastic.