Peter Childs is the Professorial Lead in Engineering Design at Imperial College London, having taken up this chair in 2008 and leads the Design Engineering group. His general interests include: creativity; the application of creative tools; mechanical and product design; desalinationl; sustainable energy component, concept and system design. He was formerly the director of InQbate, the HEFCE funded Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Creativity, director of the Rolls-Royce supported University Technology Centre for Aero-Thermal Systems and a professor at the University of Sussex. His role at Imperial involves being the joint course director for the Innovation Design Engineering degree at the Royal College of Art and Imperial and working with Design London.