Professor Snowden is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK and a distinguished engineer with wide experience of the international microwave and semiconductor industry.  He is President of the Institute of Engineering and Technology for 2009-10.  He is Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chairs the Academy’s Engineering Policy Group.

Professor Snowden is a Member of the Council of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the governing body of the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. He is a Member of the Board of Universities UK and Chairs the UUK Employability, Business and Industry Policy Committee. He is a member of the Council for Industry and Higher Education and the Defence Scientific Advisory Council.  He was Chair of Higher Education Research Opportunities (HERO) Ltd from 2006-8.

He is a Patron of Surrey Youth Focus. He was the Chair of the Daphne Jackson Trust from 2005-9. He is a Governor of the Royal Surrey Count Hospital NHS Trust.

He has been a Non-Executive of several technology companies and advises several others.  He has previously held the posts of Chief Executive Officer at Filtronic plc; Head of School and personal Chair of Microwave Engineering in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds; Senior Staff Scientist at M/A-COM Inc. in the USA, Lecturer at the University of York and Applications Engineer at Mullard Ltd.

Professor Snowden is a Fellow of the Royal Society (2005), Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2000), Fellow of the IEEE (1996), a Fellow of the IET (1992) and a Fellow of the City and Guilds Institute (2005). He holds a number of awards from the Royal Academy of Engineering and the IEEE. He has published 8 books and over 300 technical papers.