Professor Paul Pigram completed a Ph.D. in Applied Physics (1991) at the University of Sydney. After a postdoctoral appointment at the University of New South Wales in the field of surface science, he took up a faculty position at La Trobe University, Melbourne in 1995. Paul is the Director of the La Trobe University Centre for Materials and Surface Science (CMSS). He has previously held appointments as Head of the Department of Physics, Associate Dean (Research) and Associate Dean (Commercialisation and Industry) His research interests include understanding interactions at surfaces (elemental, chemical and molecular), bio-surface characterisation, nano-particle drug delivery, high throughput materials discovery and the surface science of industrially relevant systems. His work in surface science supported by the application of innovative machine learning approaches for classifying, discriminating and understanding large scale materials libraries and data sets in one, two and three dimensions. CMSS is an Activity Hub of the Australian National Fabrication Facility Victoria and hosts XPS, ToF-SIMS and scanning auger nanoprobe flagship instrumentation. A wide range of sample fabrication and precision sample preparation resources support project activities.