Peter Dower is a Professor with the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

Some time ago, Peter received a Bachelors degree with Honours (and University Medal) in Computer Engineering from the University of Newcastle, Australia. During that educational experience, he spent a northern winter visiting the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, where he was encouraged by his supervisors (Prof. Arjan van der Schaft and Prof. Rick Middleton) to  study in the field of optimal control for nonlinear dynamical systems.  Peter found this quite inspirational, and later, after learning valuable lessons while working at BHP, he pursued a PhD in the same area at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (patiently supervised by Prof. Matthew James). Peter then went on to a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California at San Diego (with Prof. J. William Helton), before returning to Australia to take up an academic position with the Department of Electronic Engineering at La Trobe University (located in Melbourne). In 2003, Peter made the long trip (16km) to the University of Melbourne, where he has remained since (except on weekends).