Andrew D. Hamilton received his PhD from Cambridge University in 1980, and the following year carried out his postdoc research at Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg. Between 1981 and 1988 he was Assistant Professor for Chemistry at Princeton University, thereafter Associate Professor until 1992, when he became Full Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, a post he held until 1997. Since 1997 he has been Irenee duPont Professor of Chemistry and, since 1998, Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. Here he held the Chair of the Chemistry Department between 1999 and 2003, and has been Deputy Provost for Science and Technology since 2003. Professor Hamilton lectures at several universities in the USA.