Pieter Kok received an MSc in Physics from the University of Utrecht in 1997, and completed his PhD in Optical Quantum Technology at the University of Bangor in 2001. He worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Hewlett Packard in Bristol, and at the University of Oxford. He is currently Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Sheffield and Chief Quantum Scientist at Aegiq Ltd. His expertise is in linear optical quantum computing, quantum metrology, imaging and sensing, and the foundations of quantum mechanics