David Lee Phillips received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, U.S.A. in 1984 and a Ph.D. degrees Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine in 1989. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester, New York, U.S.A. between 1989 and 1992. In 1993, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong, where he is now a Chair Professor of Physical Chemistry. He has served as the Head of the Depatment of Chemistry from 2006-2010. His research uses time- resolved spectroscopy experiments and quantum mechanical calculations to study short-lived intermediates in chemical reactions of interest in chemistry, biology and the environment. Examples, include the direct time- resolved spectroscopic characterization of excited states and intermediates involved in some chemical and photochemical damage of DNA nucleobases and oligomers, photodeprotection compounds with applications in physiology, drug delivery and photodynamic therapy and novel aqueous solution photoredox reactions . In collaboration with several other groups, he also investigates and characterizes new materials with applications related to solar cells, OLEDs, and photocatalysts to generate hydrogen.