David Silvester is head of applied mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Manchester. David was born in Dumfries, but was educated at Ysgol Ardudwy (Wales) and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), from which he gained a BSc in Mathematics in 1980 and a PhD in Numerical Analysis in 1984. He was appointed Lecturer in Mathematics at UMIST in 1984, and later promoted to Senior Lecturer and Reader. In 2003 he was promoted to a personal Chair in Numerical Analysis.
David has held visiting positions at Stanford University (as a Fulbright Senior Fellow), the University of Maryland at College Park, the University of the Littoral Opal Coast and the University of Heidelberg.