Deryk Osthus obtained a BA in Mathematics from Cambridge in 1996 and was awarded the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics (Part III) from the University of Cambridge in 1997.
In 2000, he obtained a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science at the Humboldt-University Berlin, where he also obtained his Habilitation in 2004. In 2003, he was awarded the European Prize in Combinatorics (jointly with Daniela Kühn).
In 2004, he moved to Birmingham to take up a position as a lecturer. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2010.
He was promoted to Professor in 2012.
In 2021, he was awarded the Fulkerson prize (jointly with Bela Csaba, Daniela Kühn, Allan Lo and Andrew Treglown).