Professor C T Pillinger FRS Notes for Chairman's introduction Colin Pillinger is Professor of Planetary Sciences and head of Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute of the Open University in Milton Keynes. His group has considerable expertise in designing and building high sensitivity instruments for analysing extraterrestrial samples, both in the laboratory and remotely on spacecraft. His interest in samples from other solar system bodies started with analysis of the Apollo lunar samples in the 1970s. Professor Pillinger is the instigator and Lead Scientist of the Beagle 2 project. In 2003 Beagle 2 will blast off from Earth aboard the European Space Agency Mars Express Mission. The tiny Beagle 2 will land on the surface of Mars and remotely analyse samples of soil, rock and the atmosphere to address the question "Is there, or was there, life on Mars?" He holds a BSc and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wales, a DSc from the University of Bristol and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993. He and his wife live in Cambridgeshire, they have a son and a daughter.