Philip Loveday obtained BSc(Eng) and MSc(Eng) degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand. He was employed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1991 and worked on piezoelectric vibratory gyroscopes and underwater sonar transducers. This led to an interest in Smart Structures and he spent a year at the Center for Intelligent Materials and Structures at Virginia Tech as part of his PhD studies. He was awarded the PhD degree from Virginia Tech in 1999. He formed and led a Smart Structures and Materials Research Group at the CSIR. This group was involved in R&D on the design and optimization of piezoelectric actuators and motors and also guided wave ultrasound applied to the monitoring of rail track. He has participated in international conferences on Non-destructive Evaluation and served as a board member of the World Federation of NDE Centers. He joined the University of the Witwatersrand in May 2020. Current interests include the industrial application of ultrasound, particularly guided wave ultrasound where he researches numerical modelling and measurement techniques which support the development of inspection and monitoring systems.