David Manolopoulos obtained a BA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1984 and a PhD under the supervision of David Clary in 1988. After completing postdoctoral work at the University of Texas at Austin he moved to a lectureship in physical chemistry at the University of Nottingham in 1990, and to a lectureship in physical and theoretical chemistry at Oxford University in 1995. He became a Professor of Theoretical Chemistry in Oxford in 2005.

He was awarded the Marlow Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1995, the Corday-Morgan Medal in 1997, and the Chemical Dynamics Award in 2009, and the Annual Prize of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science in 2000. He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Chemical Physics since 2008, and a Deputy Editor since 2015. His research focusses on quantum mechanical effects in chemical dynamics.