Matt Ruglys

“I had dreams of being the next Jacques Cousteau!”

“I was at Bangor from ’75 to ’78 reading Zoology with Marine Zoology. Like many others in the ‘70s I had dreams of being the next Jacques Cousteau. I will admit that I had initially put Liverpool first in my UCCA choices but changed it to Bangor at the last minute because in Liverpool I would not study marine biology until the 3rd year, but at Bangor it was in the 2nd year. I never once regretted that decision. In Freshers’ week my first act was to join the sub-aqua club where I made great many good friends, some of whom I am still in touch with.

We spent a great deal of time in practical sessions, many techniques we learned seem like ancient history now such as smoking recording drums. In the museum we spent hours identifying and drawing mammal skulls. Two were easy, the badger whose jaw remains articulated to  the skull, and the kangaroo which was the only varnished skull in the collection.

I well remember geology lectures in the first year, and the lecturer, Tony Jones, bringing his mountain search and rescue rucksack into the lecture theatre each time.

After graduating I did a PhD at Hull in fish immunology, my thesis, Studies on Immunosuppression in Teleost Fish, made considerable reference to the early work of one Anthony Fauci.

In 1981 I joined the Royal Navy. Why? Quite simply because I wanted to go to sea - I spent most of the next 4 years at sea, and most of that in the South Atlantic (and went round Cape Horn twice). A fellow officer in my second ship, HMS APOLLO, was Brian Warren, a Bangor maths and oceanography grad. Then in my fourth ship, HMS HERALD, the navigator was Chris Weaver, another Bangor grad that I had known in the sub-aqua club.

Leaving the RN in ’85 I did two post-doctoral fellowships, both in vaccine development, one at Aston and one at Kingston.

Realising that a full-on academic career probably wasn’t for me I re-joined the RN and trained as a meteorologist and oceanographer (METOC). The big highlight of this was two years in HMS ENDURANCE, two trips to the Antarctic, and going round the Horn twice more.

Leaving the RN yet again in 1997 I became an underwater wildlife cameraman. I worked on The Natural World (twice), Battle of the Sexes, Bill Oddie Goes Wild, a Blue Peter Special, and, most memorably, the original Blue Planet.

After BP1 there was little work for underwater wildlife camera operators as we had just done it all, so ... back to the Navy! I ended up running the Navy's meteorology and oceanography training unit.

In 2007, having secured a job with NZ MetService, we emigrated to New Zealand.  After three years as a marine forecaster and the aviation forecast manager, I joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as their one and only meteorologist. In HMNZS OTAGO I went back to the Antarctic and managed to get further south than I had in ENDURANCE. I spent the next few years recruiting others to the fold. Naval meteorology in the RNZN has an illustrious history as one of the forecasters for the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 was Lieutenant Commander Lawrence Hogben RNZN.

After almost forty (discontinuous) years in the full-time navy I have recently left yet again, this time for a new career as a professional actor. When I returned acting after an interval of very many years my first role was as Macbeth in a single scene from that Scottish play. I had never met the actress playing Lady Macbeth before, but she was Lian Butcher, also a Bangor marine biology grad! They really do get everywhere!
My wife Andrea, who I met in an underground headquarters when she was a WRNS officer, and I have two children, one lives and works as a software developer in Berlin, while the other is a student in Wellington.”