Herbert Zirath was appointed Professor of High Speed Electronics on June 1, 2000. He was born in Göteborg in 1955. He took a MScEng in Electrical Engineering in 1980 from Chalmers University of Technology. In 1986, he was awarded a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, also from Chalmers. He then worked as a project leader for a national research project within the National Micoelectronics Programme, NMP-4, with the task of starting a research facility on ultra-fast components based on III-V compounds. In 1995, he became "biträdande professor". From 1993 to 1995 he also worked part-time (20%) at the National Defence Research Establishment, Department of Information Technology, as a research manager. Since 1995, he has worked part-time at Ericsson Microwave Systems as a technical advisor on components and circuits for microwave communication. He is also a member of the TFR review board, programme director for the SSF programme "High Frequency Electronics" and he has scientific responsibility for activities in CHACH (CHAlmers Center for High-speed technology)