Professor David Cumming FREng

Head, School of Engineering, and Chair, Electronic Systems, University of Glasgow

Professor David Cumming is a world-leading researcher in microelectronic technologies for biotechnology and diagnostic purposes whose work has had major industrial impact.

Outputs from his research led to the creation of Mode Diagnostics Ltd, a successful university spin-out that now sells its diagnostic device in Boots, and US startup Ion Torrent Inc., which devised the world’s first microelectronics-based gene-sequencing system and was sold for $725 million in 2010.

He combines this with his university leadership role as Dean of Research for the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Glasgow.