Simon Webster is British and graduated from Birmingham University in 1977 with a degree in physics. He spent ten years in the UK nuclear industry before moving to Paris to work at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, later entering the European Commission in 1992. He has worked as a Euratom safeguards inspector, a policy officer in nuclear safety and radioactive waste management and, since 2004, in the Directorate-General for Research (now renamed 'Research & Innovation'). In July 2005 he was appointed Head of the Unit responsible for managing the Euratom programme of EU-funded research activities in nuclear fission science & technology, including nuclear installation safety, reactor systems, radioactive waste management and radiation protection. Since January 2011 he has become head of the unit responsible for managing the Euratom fusion energy research programme, which includes research carried out at the JET facility located in Culham, UK.