Pieter Kok studied physics at the Univeristy of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and did his PhD in quantum teleportation at the University of Wales, Bangor. He held research positions at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Hewlett Packard Labs in Bristol, and the University of Oxford, before taking up a lectureship at the University of Sheffield, where he is now Professor of Theoretical Physics.