Peter Parbrook was awarded a first class honours degree in Physics from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland in 1987. His Ph.D., also from the University of Strathclyde, was on the study of the growth and characterisation of wide-bandgap II-VI semiconductors. The majority of this work was carried out on secondment to the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern, England. In 1991 on completion of his Ph.D. studies he took a Toshiba Fellowship to continue his research in II-VI materials, working at the Toshiba Central Research and Development Center in Japan, continuing as a contract researcher there on completion of the fellowship period. In 1995 he was appointed to a lectureship in the Department of Electronic and Electrical and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, being promoted to Reader in 2002. During this time he installed and developed a research activity in III-N semiconductors using metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy, with particular interest in the use of these materials for short wavelength light emitting devices. In 2009 he took up an appointment jointly between the School of Engineering and the Tyndall National Institute as a Stokes Professor, continuing his research into the preparation of III-N materials and devices, where his research focuses on the growth of devices using novel alloys or crystal orientations / nanostructures. In 2016 he was appointed Head of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Discipline within the School of Engineering. Prof. Parbrook is the author / co-author of around 250 publications in international journals and of around 10 patents. He is a member of the International Advisory Committee for the International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors conference series. In 2011 he was co-chair of the International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS) held in Glasgow, Scotland.

My research expertise is into the development of group III nitride semiconductors for optoelectronic applications.  I am particularly interested in the growth of GaN and related compounds by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE).  Key areas are the development of new methods to get reduced threading dislocations in device structures and improving the performance of lasers and light emitting diodes, especially those emitting below 360 nm, where current efficiencies are extremely poor.  Prior to moving to UCC I was the Nitride Team Leader in the EPSRC National Centre for III-V Technologies at the University of Sheffield and Reader in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering there.Currently I am developing a Nitride Materials Research group within the environment of the Tyndall National Institute. We have programmes funded on novel approached to 300-340 nm LEDs (Science Foundation Ireland), Deep 250 nm UV LEDs (European Space Agency) InAlN based transistor reliability (European Space Agency) and for Yellow LEDs (EU Framework 7)