Peter Fleischer was born in Coburg, Germany, on September 10, 1941. He received the B.A. degree in geology (cum laude) from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1963, and the Ph.D. degree in marine geology from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1970.During 1970-1971 he held a NSF sponsored Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. From 1971 to 1978 he was on the faculty of the institute of Oceanography at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. Since 1978 he has been a Principal Investigator with the Seafloor Geosciences Division at the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity, National Space Technology Laboratory. His research interests are in acoustic characterization of the sea floor, sidescan sonar applications, marine sedimentation, and continental margin geology.