Jim Hinton received his PhD from the University of Leeds in 1998 and worked on several gamma-ray and cosmic experiments as a post-doc and research fellow, based in the UK, the US and including a 4 year spell at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (2002-2006). In 2010 he took up a Chair at the University of Leicester. Since December 2014 he has been Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. Jim Hinton's work has been recognised by the award of four research prizes, most recently the Philip Leverhulme Prize and the Royal Society Wolfson Award.