Greg P. Smestad received his Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1994. He received his Masters degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 1985 from Stanford University, and his B. S. in Biology in 1983 from the University of Santa Clara, California. From 1985 to 1990, he was employed by Hewlett-Packard and from 1990 to 1992, he was at the Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin. In 1992, he conducted solar research at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. In 1994, he was employed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. From 1995 to 2002, he was a professor, first at the California State University, Monterey Bay, and then at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He currently works as an optoelectronics and solar energy consultant. He served as an  editor for Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells  from 1990 to 2016.