David King (chemist)

He held the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge from 1988 to 2006, and was Master of Downing College, Cambridge, from 1995 to 2000: he is now emeritus professor.

While at Cambridge, he was successively a fellow of St John's College, Downing College, and Queens' College.

His elder brother, Michael Wallis King (born 1937), was director of the FirstRand bank and vice-chair of the multinational mining company Anglo American plc.

King was educated at St John's College, an all-boys private school in Johannesburg.

Sir David Anthony King (born 12 August 1939) is a South African-born British chemist, academic, and head of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.

King was born on 12 August 1939 in South Africa, son of Arnold Tom Wallis King, of Johannesburg, director of a paint company, and Patricia Mary Bede, née Vardy.

He studied at University of the Witwatersrand, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree and then a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1963.

After his PhD, King moved to the United Kingdom where he was a Shell Scholar at Imperial College, London, from 1963 to 1966.

He was then a lecturer in the School of Chemical Sciences of the University of East Anglia from 1966 to 1974.

He was a member of the National Executive of the Association of University Teachers from 1970 until 1978, and served as its president for the 1976/77 academic year.

King first taught at Imperial College, London, the University of East Anglia, and was then Brunner Professor of Physical Chemistry (1974–1988) at the University of Liverpool.

He was appointed Brunner Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 1974.

In 1988, King was appointed 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge.

When he first moved to Cambridge in 1988, he was elected a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.

He subsequently served as Head of the University's Department of Chemistry from 1993 to 2000, and was its director of research from 2005 to 2011.

He moved from St John's when he was elected Master of Downing College, Cambridge, in 1995.

Outside of academia, King was Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and Head of the Government Office for Science from 2000 to 2007.

He stepped down as Master in 2000, and was then a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, from 2001 to 2008.

King advised the government on issues including: the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic 2001; post 9/11 risks to the UK; GM foods; energy provision; and innovation and wealth creation.

He was heavily involved in the government's Science and Innovation Strategy 2004–2014.

He suggested that scientists should honour a Hippocratic Oath for Scientists.

However, the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ertl alone.

King was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and Head of the Government Office for Science from October 2000 to 31 December 2007, under prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

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 Energy Technologies Institute.

Moving to the University of Oxford, he was Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment from 2008 to 2012, and a Fellow of University College, Oxford, from 2009 to 2012.

He was additionally President of Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy (2008–2011), and Chancellor of the University of Liverpool (2010–2013).

He was then senior scientific adviser to UBS, a Swiss investment bank and financial services company, from 2008 to 2013.

From 2008 to 2012, King was Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford.

He was President of Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy, from 2008 to 2011, and was Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 2010 to 2013.

King has published over 500 papers on his research in chemical physics and on science and policy.

During his time at Cambridge, King had, together with Gabor Somorjai and Gerhard Ertl, shaped the discipline of surface science and helped to explain the underlying principles of heterogeneous catalysis.

In 2008 he co-authored The Hot Topic on this subject.

During his tenure as Chief Scientific Adviser, he raised public awareness for climate change and initiated several foresight studies.

As director of the government's Foresight Programme, he created an in-depth horizon scanning process which 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.

In April 2008, King joined UBS, a Swiss investment bank, as senior science advisor.

He was also a Fellow of University College, Oxford, from 2009 to 2012.

From 2013 to 2017, he returned to working with the UK Government as Special Representative for Climate Change to the Foreign Secretary.

He was also Chairman of the government's Future Cities Catapult from 2013 to 2016.

He left UBS to return to the UK government when he was appointed the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Climate Change in September 2013.