Peter C. Smith was born in East Orange, NJ, on June 15, 1944. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in aerospace engineering from Brown University, Providence, RI, in 1966 and 1967, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in physical oceanography from Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, he has been employed in the Coastal Oceanography Division of the Atlantic Oceanographic Laboratory, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, since 1975. During this time he has conducted theoretical and experimental research into the stability of deep ocean boundary currents, low-frequency variability on the continental shelf and slope driven by wind, tidal rectification, and offshore currents, and the scattering of topographic Rossby waves on the continental margin. In the field of instrumentation, he has carried out several intercomparison studies involving both Eulerian and Lagrangian current sensors. His present interests include an investigation of the oceanic response to severe winter storms on the Scotian Shelf.