Sir David King

Director, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford

He was the UK government’s Chief Scientific Advisor and Head of the Government Office of Science from October 2000 to the end of 2007. In that time, he raised the profile of the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the £1 billion Technologies Institute. As Director of the government’s Foresight Programme, he created an in-depth horizon scanning process that advised government on a wide range of long-term issues, from flooding to obesity. He also chaired the government’s Global Science and Innovation Forum from its inception. He advised government on issues including the foot and mouth disease epidemic in 2001, post 9/11 risks to the UK, genetically modified foods, energy provision, and innovation and wealth creation. He was also heavily involved in the government’s 10-year Science and Innovation Strategy 2004-2014.

Sir David was born in Durban, South Africa, in 1939, and after an early career at the University of Witwatersrand, Imperial College and the University of East Anglia, he became the Brunner Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 1974. In 1988, he was appointed 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and subsequently became Master of Downing College (1995-200) and Head of the University Chemistry Department (1993-200).

He has published more than 450 papers on his research in chemical physics and on science and policy, and has received numerous prizes, fellowships and Honorary Degrees.

He continues as Director of Research in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University, and is currently President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.