I’m a freak or so some people think. My problem is: I like fonts, or typefaces as I prefer to call them. You probably wonder what the hell this has to do with science. Loads, I would argue.

My main source of research funding is the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). They accept research proposals under various conditions. One of these conditions is that one’s research proposal shall not exceed six pages and the minimum font size is 10 points. And that is where it all started. I want to say as much as I can to extract as much money as I can to do the research that I think is really important. At the present time, about 10-20% of all submitted proposals gets funded depending a bit on your field. It takes about a month or two to write a good proposal. So, on average, I would have to do 10 months solid writing to get one proposal funded. Considering that I have to teach, that I am part of the departmental governing structure, meaning that I have to participate in tons of meetings and what not, there is a clear case for pulling out all the stops and doing whatever I can to get those bloody proposals funded at a rate higher than 10-20%.