Peter C. Wille was born in Königsberg, Germany, in 1936. He received the diploma and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Göttingen in 1962 and 1964, respectively.In 1964, he worked as a Summer Research Assistant at the SACLANT ASW Research Centre (SACLANTCENTRE) of NATO in La Spezia, Italy, then returned to the 3rd Institute of Physics, University of Göttingen to do contract research work on acoustic transducers and scattering phenomena. In 1966, he became Head of the Underwater Acoustics Section of the newly established Ozeanogrphicsche Forschungsanstalt der Bundeswehr (OFBw) in Kiel. In 1972, he was appointed Chief of the Science Division of FWG, the Federal Armed Forces Underwater Acoustics and Marine Geophysics Research Institute, the former OFBw. In 1982, he became Deputy Director, FWG. In 1987, he was elected Director, SACLANTCENTRE and after his tenure appointed Director, FWG in 1990. His own research activities have dealt with underwater sound propagation, attenuation, scattering, ambient noise and features of signal transmission, utilizing shipborn experiments, later supplemented by the fixed Research Platform NORDSEE, where he was involved in the conception and planning phase. Since 1973, he has been a member of the teaching staff of the Geoscience Faculty of the University of Hamburg, where he was appointed Professor in 1984. From 1975 to 1979, he was also a lecturer at the University of Kiel.