Adam Hitchcock was born and educated in Canada (B.Sc., Chemistry, McMaster, 1974; Ph.D., Chemical Physics, University of British Columbia, 1978). His research focus is inner shell excitation spectroscopies and spectromicroscopies, including instrumentation, technique development, and novel applications. A professor at McMaster since 1979, his group has studied inner shell electron energy loss (EELS) spectroscopy of gases and surfaces, using home built instruments. In 1980 he started synchrotron experiments, initially hard X-ray spectroscopy of materials at Cornell (USA), then soft X-ray spectroscopy of gases at LURE (Orsay, France) and SRC (Madison, USA). In 1994 he began research with soft X-ray transmission microscopes (STXM) and photoemission electron microscopes (XPEEM) at the Advanced Light Source (Berkeley, USA). His group developed the first STXM which successfully implemented optical interferometry to control positioning of the sample relative to the focused X-ray beam. That innovation was pivotal in the (relatively) rapid expansion of the STXM technique. In collaboration with other Canadian synchrotron radiation users, he helped establish the Canadian Light Source (CLS, Saskatoon). From 2002 – 2013, he was scientific lead of the CLS spectromicroscopy beamline, which is currently equipped with 2 STXMs and a PEEM. In 2006, he was awarded fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC, Canada’s highest scientific honor), for his contributions to development of X-ray microscopy and the CLS. His current research is focused on technique developments of STXM and ptychography, and their application to energy materials, in situ electrochemistry, magnetotactic bacteria, and catalysts for CO2 reduction. With contributions from others, he wrote and supports the analysis of X-ray images and spectra (aXis2000) software which is used by many researchers in the X-ray spectromicroscopy community.