Peter Visscher is a Senior Principal Research Fellow (SPRF) at QIMR, and holds an honorary professorship with the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at UQ. He was born in Holland from Dutch and English parents. His children are first backcrosses. After obtaining a BSc in Animal Science he worked for a couple of years in the Department of Agriculture in Holland before moving to Edinburgh for a Masters and PhD in animal breeding and genetics (supervised by Bill Hill FRS and Robin Thompson FRSE), working on the estimation of genetic parameters in large dairy cattle pedigrees. A productive postdoc with Mike Goddard (Melbourne) was followed by a return to Edinburgh, where he worked with Chris Haley (Roslin Institute) on marker-assisted-selection and QTL mapping methodology. In 1995 he moved to a faculty position at the University of Edinburgh, working on QTL mapping methods, software tools and practical applications. Since ~1998 his main interest and research focus has been in genetic epidemiology, statistical genetics and human quantitative & population genetics. He joined the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in January 2005.