David King (chemist)
| Sir David King | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
12 August 1939 South Africa |
| Residence | UK |
| Fields | Physical Chemistry, Climate Change, International Development |
| Institutions |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia, University of Liverpool |
| Alma mater | University of the Witwatersrand (BSc; PhD 1963) |
| Thesis | A Study Of The Ammonia Synthesis Over Vanadium Nitride, Correlated With The Structure Of The Catalyst (1963) |
| Notable awards |
Rumford Medal 2002 Knight Bachelor 2003 Légion d'Honneur 2009 Fellow of the Royal Society HonFREng |
Sir David Anthony King, FRS HonFREng (born 12 August 1939) is an Emeritus Professor in Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, Director of the Collegio Carlo Alberto, Chancellor of the University of Liverpool and a senior scientific adviser to UBS. He currently serves as the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Climate Change and Chairman of the Future Cities Catapult.
He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to H.M. Government under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and Head of the Government Office for Science from October 2000 to 31 December 2007. In that time, he raised the profile of the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the new £1 billion Energy Technologies Institute. In 2008 he co-authored "The Hot Topic" (Bloomsbury 2008) on this subject. He is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.
He was born in South Africa in 1939, and after an early career at the University of Witwatersrand, Imperial College and the University of East Anglia, King became the Brunner Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 1974. He was a member of the National Executive, Association of University Teachers (the academics trades union), 1970–78, and president 1976-77. In 1988 he was appointed 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and subsequently became Master of Downing College (1995–2000) and Head of the University Chemistry Department (1993–2000). During this time, King, together with Gabor Somorjai and Gerhard Ertl, shaped the discipline of surface science and helped to explain the underlying principles of heterogeneous catalysis. However, the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ertl alone. In 1991, he was a recipient of the BVC Medal and Prize, awarded by the British Vacuum Council. From 2008 to 2012 he was Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.
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