WHERE would you expect a professor at Edinburgh University to live? Around the corner from fellow academic Alexander McCall Smith in high-brow Merchiston? Or in the New Town, handy for all those dinner parties with their intellectual chatter?
It's likely that the southern English city of Cambridge, famous for its own university, would be a fair way down the list of anyone's guesses. But that is the place Chris Bishop, chair of computer science at the University of Edinburgh, calls home.
"The commute is great fun," Chris enthuses. And he's not joking – as well as being a whizz at science, the 49-year-old father-of-two is a qualified commercial pilot with his own light aircraft. It takes him just under two hours to wing it up to the city from his English home. "I am a very keen pilot," he says. "Even when the weather is bad, it is great. In fact, flying to Edinburgh when it's foggy is more fun, because it is a challenge.
"I like a challenge and a little bit of adrenalin is good."
It was this eagerness to embrace new challenges that landed Chris his first television role, presenting this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.
Over the course of five lectures, Chris, who is an expert in machine learning, tackles questions such as how microprocessors pack a billion components into the size of a stamp, and discusses why a three-year-old child is better at recognising everyday objects than the most powerful supercomputer.
"When I was a child, I watched them every year, so to give them is a tremendous thrill. They are definitely not traditional lectures.
"We have some nice demonstrations involving computer games. There's one where we drive a car around a trac , and we had 300 children leaning in their seats and working out which way to go to make the car turn."
He explains that audience participation is a big part of the appeal of the lectures. "The involvement of children is part of their ethos.
"I am very keen on outreach. I think it is hugely important to get young people interested in computer science."
Chris was also able to take his wife, Jenna, and sons, Mark, 11, and Hugh, ten, on a behind-the-scenes tour while filming in London last week. "My family came to all five lectures, which was wonderful. My children are just the right age, so they loved it. They brought a few of their friends along and I think they got some kudos."
Chris, who grew up in Norwich, originally moved to Edinburgh to study for his PhD after graduating with a first-class honours degree in physics from Oxford.
"It was my first taste of Scotland and I completely fell in love with Edinburgh," Chris recalls.
"It was always my plan to come back to Edinburgh University; the informatics department was expanding and it looked likely."
But then came his dilemma – the offer of a job in Edinburgh came just after he'd taken up a role with Microsoft Research in Cambridge.
"I remember agonising over the weekend about what to do. On the Monday morning, I had to phone Stuart Sutherland at Edinburgh University and tell him of my dilemma. He said: 'Why don't you do both?' It hadn't occurred to me, but both sides seemed happy and I was ecstatic."
And he doesn't make life easy for himself, always seeking out new challenges. Not content with two jobs, a fellowship with the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a flying hobby, Chris was also elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004 and is the author of two leading textbooks.
But he admits: "There are never enough hours in the day. I joke that 100 per cent of my time is spent at Microsoft, 20 per cent is in Edinburgh and the rest is my own."
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are broadcast on five from Monday. For more information, log on to www.rigb.org/christmaslectures08
BECOME COMPUTER LITERATETHE first lecture, on Monday, December 29, is titled Breaking the Speed Limit. It explores microprocessors – the complex piece of engineering inside every personal computer, mobile phone and games console.
Chips with Everything on Tuesday examines the ways in which the microchip is having an increasing impact on how people conduct their lives.
On day three, The Ghost in the Machine looks at software and features a question-and-answer session with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. In Thursday's lecture, Untangling the Web, Chris unravels the mysteries of the internet.
The last lecture in the series on Friday, Digital Intelligence, investigates how computers are being given the ability to learn solutions for themselves.
