Peter O’Brien (Professor) is Head of the Photonics Packaging Group at the Tyndall Institute, University College Cork and Director of the European Photonics Packaging Pilot Line (www.pixapp.eu). He is also Deputy Director of the SFI Centre for Integrated Photonics (IPIC). His research group develops packaging and integration solutions for a range of photonic-based applications including high-speed communications, miniaturised biomedical and diagnostics and remote and autonomous sensing. Prof O’Brien is also a visiting professor at the Optical Science Centre at the University of Arizona. He previously founded and was CEO of a start-up company manufacturing speciality photonic systems for bio-imaging and pharmaceutical product monitoring applications, which he sold in 2009. Prior to this, he was a post-doctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was involved in the development of submillimetre wave devices for remote (space) sensing applications. He received his degree and PhD in Physics from Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork respectively.