I developed methods using x-ray diffraction and polarised light to measure collagen fibril organization in connective tissues and applied these first to articular cartilage and subsequently used them on tissues such as ligaments, intervertebral disc, meniscus and uterine cervix. I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Travelling Fellowship to work with Professor Dick Heinegård in the Department of Physiological Chemistry at the University of Lund, Sweden. There I learnt some biology in order to study how biological and mechanical factors are inter-related. On returning to the UK I moved to Aberdeen and set up the Orthopaedic Research Laboratories. In 1992, I was awarded an MRC Senior Fellowship, and this was renewed in 1997. I was appointed to a personal chair as Professor in Orthopaedic Science in 2000.