I graduated with a BSc in Physics from Imperial College in 1982 followed by a PhD on "Tunable coherent VUV radiation applied to studies of dense z-pinch plasmas" obtained in 1986. I was appointed an EPSRC Advanced Fellow in 1990, a Lecturer in Physics at Imperial in 1995 and a Reader in 1999. In 2002 I was made Professor of Laser Physics. Currently I am the Director of the Blackett Laboratory Laser Consortium and since July 2003 have been the Head of the QOLS group.

My major areas of research have been in: (1) non-linear optical processess for generation of coherent VUV radiation and applications of these sources in atomic, molecular and muon physics; (2) investigation of atomic and molecular coherence effects (e.g. EIT) and enhanced non-linear frequency mixing; (3) High intensity laser- matter interactions especially looking at interactions with molecules and clusters; (4) development of experiments towards measurement of processes on the Attosecond time-scale. Recently I have been looking at the problems of controlling the electron dynamics driven in complex systems by strong laser fields and in developing high power sub-femtosecond light sources