Technical Background

Born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, I studied chemical engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. My technical qualifications are:

B.Sc. (1966), M.Sc. (1968)

Affiliations

Chartered Engineer
Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers
Member of the Safety and Reliability Society

Since 1968 I have been working in the fields of nuclear power, petrochemicals, oil & gas, electricity transmission and railways. My main disciplines are safety system design and technical risk assessments, in which areas I have written twenty-two international conference papers.

Swedish Language Background

I spent 17 years in Sweden: 3 years with Svenska BP in Stockholm and 14 years with ASEA-Atom (now Westinghouse-Atom) in Västerås. My working language throughout was Swedish, which gave me fluency in both the spoken and written word. During this time I wrote innumerable technical reports in Swedish and was often called upon to translate Swedish documents or to check the work of professional English translators.

In 2000 I formed my own company, Birka Ltd, providing safety engineering services and Swedish-to-English translations. This combination works well as it keeps me in touch with the latest developments in technology and regulation and ensures that translations reflect any such developments.

Translation assignments have included :

• an application for a government grant to develop a technology programme for the forestry industry

• a license agreement to develop a vegetable oil process for animal feed

• an operating manual for a water-purifier

• several safety engineering reports for a Swedish nuclear power station (140,000 words)

• a web site for a stately home outside Stockholm

Affiliation

Associate of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting

References

A full CV and list of translation clients is available on request.