Brian Sowerby recently retired as Chief Research Scientist and Program Manager (Instrumentation and Control) with CSIRO Minerals. He obtained a BSc (Hons 1) from the University of NSW and a PhD in physics from the Australian National University. Following two years post-doctoral work in Canada, Brian has carried out research and development in Australia on the application of on-line analysis techniques in the mineral, energy and security industries. His work led to the commercialisation of a number of on-line analysis instruments and he has received many awards for this work including the prestigious Australia Prize in 1992.