Sir David King

Sir David King is the former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, former special representative for climate change to the UK Foreign Secretary, currently honorary professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge.

Published over 500 research papers on chemical physics, as well as science and policy. During his stay in Cambridge University, he established the discipline of "surface science" with Gabor Somorjai and Gerhard Ertl, to explain the basic principles of heterogeneous catalysis. During his tenure as the chief scientific advisor to the UK government, he raised the profile of the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the new £1bn Energy Technologies Institute. He has also successfully raised public awareness of climate change and initiated multiple forward-looking research. As the director of the UK Government's Foresight Programme, he has created an in-depth horizon scanning process to provide advices to the government on broad long-term problems.