Sir Christopher has been a director of the ERA Foundation board since 1st November 2010. He is also President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK and a distinguished engineer with wide experience of the international microwave and semiconductor industry.
He was Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chaired the Academy’s Engineering Policy Group from 2008-2013 and President of the Institute of Engineering and Technology for 2009-10.
Sir Christopher is a member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Science and Technology. He is a member of the governing body of the UK’s Technology Strategy Board and was a member of the Council of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for six years. He is vice-president of Universities UK and Chaired the UUK Employability, Business and Industry Policy Committee for 5 years. 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 was a Governor of the Royal Surrey County 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. Sir Christopher 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.