After completing his thesis, sponsored by UKAEA, he joined the Materials Development Division at the Harwell Laboratory in Oxfordshire. He worked in the field of materials characterisation, firstly in secondary ion mass spectrometry and later in electron spectroscopies applied to a wide range of materials. With the formation of AEA Technology plc, he became the head of Electronic Materials Team within the Product Development Group. In this role, he was responsible for a range of manufacturing coating technologies and ceramic composite materials. In 1997, he moved to Materials Science and Engineering at the University where he now a professor working in the field of functional materials and process technologies. He has worked extensively with industry to translate fundamental materials chemistry into commercial processes and products. Professor Chalker is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.