The Research and Development Society

Keynote talk and discussion dinner with presentation of the 2008 Duncan Davies Medal
Tuesday 15 July 2008, 6.30pm
The Royal Society, 7 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG - map

The scientific consensus about human-induced climate change is both unequivocal and urgent. The challenges we face from this and its subsequent implications, whether it’s from food security to water resource to population growth to our wellbeing mean major challenges for society as we progress through the rest of the century.

Sir David King, the former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and the new Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, will in his speech, outline the environmental challenges we face and how best they can and should be tackled.

Biography

Sir David King is the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford. He was Government's Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office of Science from October 2000 to 31 December 2007.

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, 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 (1995-2000), and Head of the University Chemistry Department (1993-2000). He has published over 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.