Honorary Treasurer and Vice President of the Royal Society, Chancellor of the University of Leicester, and Chairman of the National Physical Laboratory.

He is a non-executive director of GKN plc and of W.S. Atkins plc and a Trustee of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Previously, he was Chairman and Chief Executive of Oxford Instruments plc, Deputy Chief Executive of VG Instruments Ltd., Master of St. Catherine’s College Oxford, Chairman of Trustees of the Science Museum, Chairman of the Engineering & Technology Board, and Chairman of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.

He was knighted in 1998 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Sir Peter has a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge and began his academic career in Cambridge and Imperial College and then moved into private industry in 1975, returning to academic life as Master of St. Catherine’s Oxford in 2000.