Professor David Phillips FRSC CBE 

Professor Phillips is the current president of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has served terms as Chair of the Education and Qualifications Board and member of RSC Council. Professor Phillips joined the University of Southampton as a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry and left as Reader to become Wolfson Professor of Natural Philosophy, at The Royal Institution. He became the Deputy Director of The Royal Institution in 1987-89. He then moved to become Professor of Physical Chemistry of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London (now Imperial College London) in 1989, Head of Department of Chemistry 1992-2002 and Hofmann Professor of Chemistry 1999-2006. He was Dean of the Faculties of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences 2002-05 and Senior Dean 2005-06. He is currently Senior Science Ambassador, Schools, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Investigator.

He has broadcast for TV and radio on his research interests, popular science and the state of British science. He regularly gives 20-30 popular lectures per annum to schools and lay audiences and e-masterclasses to groups of schools in the UK and abroad. He was awarded the RSC Nyholm Lectureship and Medal in 1994-95 for services to Chemical Education, the Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, London for public understanding of science. In 2010 he was awarded the Porter Medal for Photochemistry, relating to his research in photochemistry. In 1999, he received the OBE in The Queen's Birthday Honours for services to science education, and CBE in the 2011 New Year Honours list for services to chemistry. He is a past Chairman of the DfES (Department for Education and Science) sponsored 'London Gifted and Talented' consortium promoting e-learning on the Managed Learning Environment for Gifted and Talented cohort of London School students.

Professor David Philips FRSC CBE is a member of the Vision for science and mathematics education 5-19 project committee.