I was born, raised and received my early education (St. Mary's) in the Riviera of the North, Blackpool. I obtained a MA degree in Physics from Keble College, Oxford in 1988 and continued at Oxford for my DPhil (1988-1992) in high energy experimental particle physics. In 1992-1996 I was based at the DESY (Hamburg) electron-proton collider, HERA as a member of the ZEUS experiment as a SERC fellow for Bristol University and then as a research associate at Oxford University. In 1996 I moved to Lawrence Berkeley Lab (California) as a research fellow and worked at the Fermilab Tevatron collider (Chicago) as part of the CDF experiment. I took up a lecturer position at UCL in 1999. In 2001 I took a sabbatical year to work for Quadriga Worldwide PLC developing satellite IP-based delivery software. In 2004 I was awarded the Boys Medal by the Institute of Physics, elected a Fellow of the Institute and promoted to Reader. In 2008 I was promoted to a Professorship.
Within the Physics & Astronomy department I was the schools liaison officer from 2002-2008 and served on both the postgraduate and undergraduate teaching committees from 2004-2009. I am the chair of the departmental teaching committee from the start of 2009/10 session. I was an elected non-professorial member of UCL Council and Academic Board from 2004-2008 and also served on the Council nominations committee and the Council effectiveness Review Committee. I am presently a member of the UCL ethical investments review committee. Since 2008 I have been the head of the High Energy Physics research Group.
External to UCL, I've served on the STFC grants panel from 2004-2009 and the STFC CMS oversight committee from 2004-2008. I've been a member of the IoP Teachers Course Committee since 2005. I've been a member of the IoP's High Energy Physics Group Committee since 2008 and chaired the IoP PP2020 committee which prepared a forward look at research in particle physics and its impact on society and UK industry.