Hi, I’m Michael Renton.

When I finished school I originally studied architecture at UWA in Perth.
I loved maths, science and art and thought architecture would combine them all.
Unfortunately it combined the worst of them - for me that is! Looking for truth, beauty and the meaning of life, I switched to an Arts degree. I took subjects in psychology, philosophy and maths, but still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do... So I interspersed my studies with trips to South America, India, Thailand and Indonesia. There I studied Spanish, yoga and meditation and I lived in monasteries, yoga ashrams and huts in the Himalayas and on the side of a Sumatran volcano... Believe it or not I had some interesting conversations about chaos and complexity.

Returning to Perth I completed my honours year studying control theory in chaotic systems. I also completed a Dip Ed. and have taught subjects such as Mathematics and English as a foreign language in Australia, Indonesia and India, and yoga and Indonesian at schools, universities and privately.

Finally I decided to head back to the world of maths, looked around for an interesting place to do a PhD and found the Centre for Plant Architecture at University of Queensland!
I love Brisbane and I love UQ. Last year I even got to go on a 6 month trip to study the structure of Finnish birch trees and talk with French scientists about modelling plant growth. The trip included some more yoga in India and some more Spanish in Guatemala!

Now I’m doing my research on plant structure and form, teaching yoga at uni and tutoring maths. I love the work I’m doing here, because it DOES combine art, maths and science!