Peter B. O'Connor received the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Cornell University, in 1995. He did a postdoctoral fellowship on mass spectrometry instrumentation at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam, and worked for two years for a mass spectrometry instrumentation company before joining Boston University's Mass Spectrometry Resource, in 1999. He is currently an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His current research interests are in improving the performance and application of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry instrumentation.