Karl is a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Durham University, having previously been in the chemistry departments at the University of Oxford and the Universite de Strasbourg. Karl achieved a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Leicester in 1996 and is a Chartered Chemist, Chartered Scientist and fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. His work since 2000 has focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology, particularly the chemistry of carbon nanotubes. He has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Royal Society and he has authored or co-authored over 75 publications in peer reviewed journals which have accumulated over 2,500 citations. His work has been recognised with numerous awards, including the international Royal Society of Chemistry Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011 for his development of intellectual property around the production of graphene, and the Times Higher Education Research and Innovation Award 2012. He is the secretary of the Chemical Nanosciences and Nanotechnology subject group of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Karl established the Company in 2010 and, whilst he is employed by Durham University, he is seconded to Applied Graphene Materials for part of this time.

Inorganic chemistry