At the heart of the How To Raise A Happy Genius team is Colin M. Drysdale. Colin has been a scientist from an age before he even really understood what science was. He has an honour’s degrees in Zoology, a master’s degree in marine and fisheries science, and a doctorate in an obscure group of poorly known whales. He has taught at a number of universities, as well as providing talks to school children of all ages to encourage them to consider a career in science. He is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles, reports and encyclopedia entries, as well as a series of academic textbooks that provide a new way for teaching biologists how to make maps for use in their research.
Outside of academia, he is a multi award-winning author of post-apocalyptic survival novels, as well as a number of books aimed at adults and children. These include The Little Book of Zombie Mathematics: 25 Zombie-based Maths Problems (which provides an alternative and entertaining way to get people of all ages interested in mathematics), the upcoming children’s picture book Zombies Love Brains, and the soon-to-be published Monsters In My House – a draw your own picture book which aims to help children develop their understanding and interpretation of language in a fun and unusual way. He has also spent time working as a juggler, a magician, and as a balloon modeller, and is still occasionally called on to use these skills at children’s parties!
Along with his deep-rooted interest in education for people of all ages, the psychology of learning and human development, and alternative learning strategies, this gives him a unique, wide-ranging and, in many ways, non-traditional, perspective on how best to raise children to become happy and successful adults.
The other four members of the team are just as important as Colin. These are Sarah, Colin’s partner and the main editor for How To Raise A Happy Genius, Andrea who helps find interesting links and keep the site running, and who, as a parent, helps keep Colin grounded in the realities of everyday parenting and, finally, A and L. A (aged 5 at the time of writing) and L (aged 18 months) are Andrea’s children, and they are Colin’s favourite people for testing out new games, books and other ideas. This allows the posts on this site, and particularly the ideas for games and experiments, and the reviews for products, books and apps, to be firmly rooted in the experiences of children, and not just the opinions of adults!