The Prospectors

Before setting up The Prospectory in 2001, Alison and Peter spent many years working in Hewlett Packard Research Labs in Bristol as principal scientists – studying information and communication behaviour, inventing and developing new HP products and running early technology trials.

Alison has a MA in Psychology from the University of St Andrews and a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Sheffield.  She has edited a book, published many academic papers and presented invited talks on her work at conferences, business seminars and universities. She has occasionally appeared on BBC TV and Radio talking about her research.  Alison is particularly interested in irrational behaviour and how what we do changes what we think (rather than vice versa). Her main research tools are everyday language analysis and real world experiments.  Alison is a Fellow of the Royal College of Arts and a Director of Talybont on Usk Energy Ltd.

Peter, my partner, sadly died of Motor Neurone Disease in November 2019.  We run our ‘I’ve got an idea fund’ in his memory. Peter had a BA in Pure Mathematics from The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and an MSc in Computer Science from Brunel University.  After  joining Hewlett Packard, Peter designed and helped develop the first commercial multi-node e-mail system, launched in 1981. Peter held international patents in the fields of electronic mail, object oriented systems and device protocols. Peter’s Prospectory research interests lay in energy reduction, ultra low energy transport and energy storage.