Background
He was born in Hexham, Northumberland in 1971.
He was born in Hexham, Northumberland in 1971.
He graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Coventry University in 1993, before earning a Doctor of Philosophy in deoxyribonucleic acid computing in 1997, from the University of Warwick.
He then held a Leverhulme Trust Special Research Fellowship at the University of Liverpool, before taking up permanent academic appointments, first at the University of Liverpool (2000–2002) and then the University of Exeter (2002–2006).