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
Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University The Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University () (founded as the Institute of Physics, QAU), is an academic and research department of the Quaid-e-Azam University (Qau), Pakistan. It is also referred to as the Institute of Theoretical Physics. Established in 1966 with efforts led by Abdus Salam, the institute was located in Rawalpindi, Punjab Province and offered research in mathematics and theoretical physics. Professor Riazuddin served its first and founding director of the institute after shifting to the present QAU campus in 1972. The institute is considered a birthplace of school of theoretical physics of Pakistan.