Earwig

Another vacancy in the BBC World Service portfolio - Chris Westcott, often styled "Dr", has announced he's stepping down as Director of BBC Monitoring at the end of the financial year.

Chris, a former nuclear scientist, has been running the Caversham operation for over ten years, after a BBC career in science broadcasting and the early days of the web at World Service. Before that, he was a research scientist at the UK Atomic Energy Authority's Harwell laboratory between 1980 and 1989, specialising in materials research and the development of computer-based information systems.

Caversham has been through many changes under the Doctor; some uncomfortable, resulting in tribunals, and new technology has not always delivered what was promised. But, against many people's expectations, the listening post is still there in a licence-fee funded world.