Professor Chalker was awarded his BSc (1982) and PhD (1986) from University College Cardiff in the University of Wales. After completing his thesis, sponsored by UKAEA, he joined the Materials Development Division at the Harwell Laboratory in Oxfordshire. There, he worked in the field of materials characterisation, firstly in secondary ion mass spectrometry and later in electron spectroscopies applied to a wide range of materials. With the formation of AEA Technology plc, he became the head of Electronic Materials Team within the Product Development Group. In this role, he was responsible for a range of manufacturing coating technologies and ceramic composite materials. In 1997, he moved to Materials Science and Engineering at the University where he now a professor working in the field of functional materials and manufacturing process technologies. He has worked extensively with industry to translate fundamental materials chemistry into commercial processes and products. He was the winner of the RSC Teamwork in Innovation Award 2005 for his work with Epichem Ltd and has held patents with Accentus, AEA Technology, Sigma Aldrich, Nanoco Technology , Meta Additive and Renishaw. He a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.