Dr. Gordon Thomas retired as Head of PSDB's facility at Langhurst, near Horsham, in February 1993. He was responsible for managing the part of the Branch that deals with physical security and other corporate areas of work. Prior to his appointment to this post, Gordon worked for 11 years as an administrator in the Home Office, working on subjects as diverse as Sunday trading legislation, mentally disordered offenders, race relations and Next Steps Agencies. Gordon graduated fro King's College London in 1966 with a degree in physics and took his PhD in nuclear physics in 1969. He then worked in nuclear physics research at the Rutherford Laboratory, Chilton until 1972 when he joined the Home Office to conduct research and development work on the detection of fingerprints at scenes of crime. This was followed by three years running the Automated Fingerprint Recognition project, the stage which led to the system being used in New Scotland Yard. Gordon is now a security consultant.