Dave Charlton's research career spans three large experiments at CERN: the UA1 experiment where he did his PhD, and then the OPAL experiment at LEP followed by ATLAS. Throughout his career he's been interested on the physics of the heaviest objects in the Standard Model - first in searching for the top quark at UA1, then measuring Z and W bosons and their interactions, especially with each other, at LEP and the LHC. He's also been involved in trigger systems at all three experiments, as well as spending time building and testing pieces of the silicon sensors (silicon strip modules) for ATLAS in the early noughties.
Dave Charlton was ATLAS' physics coordinator in 2008/9, when the first beams went around the LHC. After that he spent four years as Deputy Spokesperson of the collaboration, and had the privilege to represent the collaboration as Spokesperson during 2013-17. These days he is back in Birmingham, his home institute, where he is professor of physics.