David studied physics at University as well as working on the student newspaper.

After graduating he worked on his physics PhD, sometimes in Berlin and Milan, but mostly spending sleepless night shifts in a drafty, cavernous, concrete doughnut just outside Liverpool sometimes known as the Daresbury Lab.

Once he'd completed his PhD he worked on the now defunct Science Line, Science Information Telephone Service, apparently providing physics-homework answers for most of the school-age population of Hampshire !

At the same time he was getting more and more freelance work for BBC Radio 5Live, until eventually shameless flirting in a job interview securred David his first full time BBC job as 5 Live's Science Specialist. Soon after that he joined the BBC in Birmingham to become the BBC's Midlands Science and Environment Correspondent.

David says his job is possibly the best job in the world and it has taken him to Italy and China and allowed him to see many amazing sights; including a secret government nuclear bunker under Birmingham and a machine that turns an entire dead cow into very small bits very quickly, the cow-chunker. Also - he says - "It's much better paid than physics and involves no heavy lifting!"

He also loves Live broadcasting, although nothing could have prepared him for the time he was covering an environmental protest on the Birmingham Northern Relief road (now the M6Toll Road). A protester decided to leap between him and the camera and swear into the camera lens, reaching the entire audience of Midlands Today. David is yet to be up-staged like that again!

In his spare time David enjoys clubbing in Birmingham and trying to improve his shorthand.

E-mail : david.gregory@bbc.co.uk