David came to Christ's as an undergraduate in 1964.  He was elected a Research Fellow in 1971, and has since served as Director of Studies in Engineering and Tutor.  He became a Life Fellow in 2006, on retirement from his University post in the Department of Engineering.

His research interests are in materials engineering, and he now works internationally advising major companies and legal firms on failures of large steel structures.  He was the founder editor of Elsevier's journal Engineering Failure Analysis, founder chair of Elsevier's International Conference on Engineering Failure Analysis series, and is co-author of Elsevier's Engineering Materials textbooks, now in their third editions.  He is also interested in music, sailing and all things Spanish.