Professor Deric Powell Jones, BSc DIC PhD was born in Monmouthshire, South Wales, and received the degrees of BSc in physics and PhD in the super- conductivity of alloys from Imperial College, London. He worked as a medical physicist at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then as a lecturer at the Medical School. During more than twenty-five years spent at St. Bartholomew's he became a reader in the University of London and head of Medical Electronics and Physics in the Medical School. His research interesrs include the application of optoelectronic techniques in anesthesia and surgery and also the development of new techniques for physiological measurements in respiration and ophthalmology He is a fellow of the UK Institute of Physics and of the UK Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and a chartered engineer and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Professor Jones is currently affiliated to the Biomedical Engineering Department at City University, London.