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Who Am I?

The Otter Joy website was created and is maintained by Lesley Wright.

This site was originally created using Notepad and HTML; I now use DreamWeaver. The content management system is my head! Graphics are mucked about with using JASC PaintShop Pro. The site is hosted by Abode Hosting.

Otter Stuff

My first and best love is animals, especially OTTERS (in case you haven't noticed!). They consume my free time as you can see. I would love to have one of my own, but it hasn't come to pass yet due to financial constrictions (like a giant anaconda squishing my bank account).

I have several friends who have pet otters, and many friends who work with them in zoos or in the wild.

I occasionally help Martin and Daphne Neville display their pet Asian Small-Clawed Otters, Bertie and Belinda at shows and events in the south of England. Yes, I have been nipped, but it was an accident. My cat has done far worse damage and he doesn't even need a licence...

I have honorary research associate status at the Division of Animal Health and Husbandry, Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, where I am working on an IT system for the objective assessment of otter husbandry, with help from Dr Mike Mendl and Professor John Webster. This is the KASBAH project, the progress of which can be followed on the KASBAH pages of this site. I have had a couple of papers on my work published in the Bulletin of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group.
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I am a member of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group, looking after the website and mailing list, and helping prepare the Bulletin for electronic publication..

When not doing any of these things, or at work, or asleep or eating, I visit zoos and otter parks, read books about otters, watch TV about otters, collect toy otters - I am in general an Otter Fool.

Work Stuff

I am a senior database analyst and webserver manager at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, which is part of CCLRC. When I left school I started there as a Lab Technician, but I have been in science sector computing services for nearly 20 years.

Along the line, I have been a programmer working in teams and alone, and an Oracle DBA managing my own technical team of 11, working on a variety of projects ranging from the exchange of information on unpublished research in progress in the G7 countries, to the Lab's finance system, to a single-user system managing Health & Safety courses and a public access register of UK Energy Research. These days, all the interfaces are web-based, and this organisation was an early adopter of the Web. We are also the European co-ordinators for the W3CLA initiative, and web technology is central to our work. My department is also heavily involved in GRIDs and E-Science. My own customers have included international science institutes, satellite construction teams, accountants, administrators and the entire corporate staff of CLRC. These days I mostly use Perlscript, JScript, XML, SQLServer, Access, Ingres, Oracle, running on Microsoft and Redhat Linux platforms.

The Laboratory does loads of fun stuff with synchrotons, lasers, satellites, space probes, microfabrications etc. It is located on the Berkshire Downs south of Oxford in England.

If you want to contact me professionally, or learn more about the Laboratory, go to our external website, or email me on L.Wright@rl.ac.uk