David is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Vice President of the Academic Board at the University of Melbourne. David was Vice President of IChemE for three years and Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal Education for Chemical Engineers for nine years.

David's awards include the 2006 Frank Morton Medal of IChemE, the 2010 Caltex Teaching Award of Excellence and the 2013 IChemE Council Medal.

David was congress Chair for the 16th Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering Congress in 2015, and was the Australian Director for APCChE until recently. David was also a special member of the World Council of Chemical Engineers and was commissioned to complete a report on Chemical Engineering and Industry 4.0 for the council. That report was delivered in Prague in 2018.