Welcome Professor Olivia

Professor Olivia Corcoran will join the Friends commttee from September 2013. Olivia is Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry at the University of East London, and has spent some years living on a narrowboat in the London area. She now resides in the Slough area and has a narrowboat on the Slough Arm.

The teaching theme continues

One of the objectives identified by the Friends as desirable is to engage with young people who live close to the canal through contact with schools and linking education and skills with activities on the arm. In addition to being a welcome new addition to our group we expect that Olivia will take on this education remit.

Olivier writes of her interest in the Friends...

Professor Olivia Corcoran has been resident in the Slough GUC area since 2003 when she discovered her first narrow boat (NB) Wild Garlic. NB Teazel, a fellow resident boat came under her care in 2004. She lectures in forensic analysis and toxicology at University of East London and has supervised projects with colleagues on environmental chemistry and water quality.

Describing her passion for the canal, she says: “As resident boaters the canal is our garden and we are sitting ducks for antisocial behaviour and witnessing wild-life crime. We also have a responsibility for not dumping excessive detergents and diesel spillage in the canal. This is one of the most neighbourly boating communities that has existed under the guise of Highline Yachting since 1970”.

"I don't see the canal as a boring backwater. I am interested in the local heritage and how the story can be researched, illustrated and changed according to the audience, or be changed by the audience. Above all I am interested in breaking down boundaries and using the canal as a unique space between arts and sciences capable of informing both and inspiring audiences at many levels to see, hear, touch and participate.”