Leonard A Dissado (F'06). He was born in St. Helens, Lancashire, U.K. in 1942. He graduated from the University College London with a 1st class degree in chemistry in 1963 and was awarded the Ph.D. degree in theoretical chemistry in 1966 and the D.Sc. degree in 1990. After rotating between Australia and England twice he settled in at Chelsea College in 1977 to carry out research into dielectrics. His interest in breakdown and associated topics started with a consultancy with STL which begun in 1981. Since then he has published many papers and one book, together with John Fothergill, in this area. In 1995 he moved to The University of Leicester, and was promoted to Professor in 1998. He has been a visiting Professor at The University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, Nagoya University, and NIST at Boulder Colorado. He was awarded the degree of Docteur Honoris Causa by the Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, in 2007, and was made a Honorary Professor of Xian Jiaotong University, China, in 2008.