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 The department offers 3-year (bachelor's) undergraduate courses in physics and physics & astronomy, 4-year (master's) courses in physics, physics & astronomy and theoretical physics and also participates in joint honours and natural science programmes with other departments of the university. Taught and research based master's degrees and research based PhDs are available at postgraduate level. All research takes place within the department, whilst teaching also takes place in various locations around the university. The Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics is a professorship or chair in the Department of Physics at Durham University. The chair is named after Sir Peter Ogden.