Prof Chris Firth

Organisation

Thales UK

Job title

Chief Scientist

Biography

Chris Firth received a BSc (Hons) in Electronic Engineering in 1976 and an MSc in Telecommunications Systems in 1978.

In his early career he worked for an SME on many and various aspects of data transmission both wired and wireless.

Since 1980 he has worked at Thales (formerly Racal) in a variety of technical and senior managerial roles, initially leading Racal’s R&D activity in the UK for voice-band modems and their associated international standards. Much of this work was in collaboration with Racal’s USA activities where Chris was managing teams on both sides of the Atlantic. Ultimately Chris was running Racal-Datacom’s Product Engineering Division responsible for all development and supporting services for the company.

In 1993 Chris and some of his team moved to Racal Research (now Thales Research & Technology). This was to focus more on the research aspects of data communications but still working closely with Racal’s USA team and personally co-ordinated Racal Data Group’s worldwide standards activity.

Chris has always been involved with collaborative activities and today in Thales UK his current responsibilities include collaborative project funding acquisition and academic relationships.

Chris is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET), a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (SMIEEE) and an honorary professor in the School of Engineering at Warwick University.