Simon obtained his first degree in Biochemistry at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh before moving to the John Innes Centre in Norwich where he studied for his PhD under the supervision of Allan Downie looking at the role of calcium signalling during legume symbiosis.

Simon then went to work as a postdoc for four years in Pete Cullen's lab in the Department of Biochemistry at Bristol University where he investigated the GAP1 family of ras GTPase-activating proteins.

​Having become interested in the application of imaging technologies to answer biological quesions Simon moved to the Babraham Institute in 2004 where he helped establish the core Imaging Facility.

Simon now manages the Facility which has over 100 registered users based within the Institute and an increasing number of commercial users based both on and off campus.