David J. C. MacKay continued his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences (Experimental and theoretical physics) in 1988. He went to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a Fulbright Scholar, where his supervisor was John Hopfield. He was awarded a PhD in 1992. In January 1992 MacKay was appointed the Royal Society Smithson Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, continuing his cross-disciplinary research in the Cavendish Laboratory, the Department of Physics of the University of Cambridge. In 1995 he was made a University Lecturer in the Cavendish Laboratory. He was promoted in 1999 to
Durham University Department of Physics situated on the university's Science Site, on the south side of the city of Durham, 2 miles from Junction 62 of the A1(M) and approx 5 minutes drive from Durham Station. Students are members of one of the 14 colleges in the city. Each year the department admits around 170 students for degrees in physics, physics & astronomy and theoretical physics. The current standard conditional offer given to a student taking A-Level examinations is A*A*A, to include physics and mathematics. Admissions are processed through UCAS. In addition, an applicant must be accepted by one of the colleges of Durham University.