Professor Andreas G. Andreou was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. He is the co-founder of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Language and Speech Processing and Director of the Whitaker Institute Microfabrication Laboratory. His research is aimed at brain-inspired microsystems for sensory information, life sciences microsystems and human language processing. Notable microsystems achievements over the last 25 years include a contrast sensitive silicon retina; the first CMOS polarisation sensitive imager; silicon rods in standard foundry CMOS for single photon detection; a large-scale mixed analogue/digital associative processor for character recognition; the first truly autonomous chip-scale hybrid silicon/silicone microsystem for cell culture and incubation; and an ultra-low power CMOS sensor for retinal prosthesis. In 1996 Andreou was elected as an IEEE Fellow ‘for his contribution in energy efficient sensory microsystems.’