Peter James Parbrook was born in Scotland in 1966. He received the B. Sc.(Hons.) and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1987 and 1991, respectively. From 1987 to 1990, he was employed by the University on Secondment to the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (now QinetiQ Ltd). He continued research in II-VI wide bandgap semiconductors from 1991–1995 at the Toshiba Central Research Laboratories, first as a Toshiba Fellow, and subsequently as a Research Scientist. In 1995, he took a Lectureship at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, U.K., being promoted to Reader in 2002. In 2009, he became Stokes Professor of Nitride Materials and Devices at the Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork (UCC), Republic of Ireland, holding a concurrent position in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UCC. He has published more than 150 articles in international journals, and holds 10 patents in the field of wide bandgap semiconductor technologies. Currently, his research focuses on the growth and fabrication of wide-bandgap semiconductor devices, particularly for short wavelength optoelectronics. Prof. Parbrook is member of the International Advisory Committee for the International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors (IWN) and co-chair of the forthcoming International Conference in Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS 2011).