I am a fifty year old mathematician teaching at the University of Aberdeen, where I am currently also one of the two Directors of Studies (Assistant Deans) in the Faculty of Science. (This is a lot less fancy than it might sound: an American academic once observed that a Dean is to a Faculty as a fire hydrant is to a dog, so you can figure out for yourself where Assistant Deans fit into the great scheme of things.) The university is the fifth oldest in Britain and celebrates its 500th anniversary next year.
I have been keen on board and card games since I was a child. Chess was my main game during my teens, but that gave way to social bridge when I went to university, to be followed by the tournament variety a few years later. My interest in non-traditional board games was revived in the early seventies by the chance discoveries first of Diplomacy and then of the magazine Games and Puzzles. Soon after that I took up postal Diplomacy and have been a minor figure on the British pbm scene ever since.
Games are my main source of relaxation: on Monday evenings I play duplicate Bridge; on Thursday evenings I play board games with a group of friends; postally, I play in one game and GM another; I also write bits and pieces for Mike Siggins's magazine, Sumo. Favourite commercial board game? 1829 took the title in the mid seventies and the only change since has been a broadening to 18xx. Favourite games of the last four years? Airlines, 1835, Demarrage, Extra Blatt (Moskito), History of the World, Koalition, Sante Fe, Modern Art, Vernissage, Bluff, Auf Heller und Pfennig, Manhatten.
Best wishes,
Stuart
August 15, 1994