Alan I. Parsons was born in Southend, England, on June 6, 1943. He received the degrees of M.Sc. and Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Bristol University in 1966 and 1968, respectively.He then joined the Admiralty Research Laboratory in Teddington, England, where he worked on a variety of topics in the areas of hydrodynamics, oceanography, and underwater acoustics. In 1978 he moved to Portland, Dorset, to join what is now the Admiralty Research Establishment, where he has been working on problems in underwater sonar, with particular reference to towed arrays. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist with special interests in sonar design, noise performance, and signal processing.