Brian K. Ridley gained his B.Sc. in physics from University of Durham in 1953, and later his Ph.D. on colour centres in the alkali halides in 1957. He worked at the Mullard Research Laboratory, Redhill, 1956-1964; before moving to the Department of Physics at the University of Essex, 1964-present. He has been a Full Professor from 1984, Research Professor from 1991-2007, and Professor Emeritus from 2008. He also holds Visiting appointments at Cornell,Stanford, Lyngby, Princeton, Lundt, Santa Barbara, Hong Kong. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1994, awarded the Paul Dirac Prize and Medal in 2001 by the Institute of Physics, and awarded Prize of the HCIS International Conference, Modena, in July 2003.