Dave was born in Wigan in England in 1976. After finding an early aptitude for all things technical he persued engineering studies at college and during a full 5-year technical apprenticeship with British Aerospace. Dave completed a 4-year undergraduate degree (MEng) in Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield in 2002. Dave was asked to stay on at the university and get involved in researching atomistic modelling, and successfully completed his PhD in 2006. Since then Dave has worked for Transitive and IBM in Manchester as a Senior Software Engineer, Intercollege-Laranca in Cyprus as both a Lecturer and the Head of Department (Computing) and the University of Sheffield Research and Innovation Team as a Scientist (Modelling and SImulation). When Dave is not working towards solving an unsolvable problem, he enjoys recreational maths, music, football and gettting involved in environmental issues.