He received his BA from Oxford University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. After doing post-doctoral work at Culham, he returned to Princeton in 1987 and then joined the faculty at UCLA in 1993, becoming a full professor there in 2000. From 2001 to 2003 he led the plasma physics group at Imperial College, London, where he remains a part time professor. He became director of CCFE in 2008 and CEO of the Atomic Energy Authority in 2009. He has published more than 100 papers and is a sought-after public speaker. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the UK Institute of Physics. He is also a scientific adviser to Britain's Prime Minister as a member of the Minister's Council for Science and Technology.

He can be reached at Steve.Cowley@imperial.ac.uk