Professor Sir David King
Director, Smith School

Sir David King became the Smith School's first Director in January 2008. Since then, he has drawn together an elite group of full-time, associate and visiting academics from all over the world to be part of the School. With them he if forging links with global businesses and politicians from every continent to achieve the Smith School's aims - to be a catalyst for innovative science, progressive decision-making and sustainable economic progress.

Sir David was the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office of Science from October 2000 to 31 December 2007. In that time, he alerted governments worldwide to the threat of climate change. He was instrumental in creating the £1bn Energy Technologies Institute and was Director of the government’s Foresight Programme, creating an in-depth horizon scanning process to advise ministers on a range of long-term problems, from flooding to obesity.

Sir David chaired the government’s Global Science and Innovation Forum from its inception and advised on the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001, post 9/11 risks to the UK, GM foods and energy provision. He was heavily involved in establishing the government’s Science and Innovation Strategy of 2004-2014. After leaving government he co-authored The Hot Topic (Bloomsbury, 2008).

Sir David was born in South Africa in 1939 and in 1974, 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 1988, he was appointed 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, subsequently becoming Master of Downing College (1995-2000) and Head of Cambridge University Chemistry Department (1993-2000).

He has published more than 500 papers on chemical physics and science and policy, and has been awarded numerous prizes, fellowships, and honorary degrees. He remains Director of Research at the Department of Chemistry in Cambridge. He was President of the British Science Association from 2008-9. In October 2009 he was made an Officer of the French Legion of Honour.