Peter Boncz is specialized in engineering database systems, and has designed and implemented multiple database kernels, both relational and XML, inclusive query processing and transaction management. His unique technical expertise is insight in the interaction between high-performance data management and computer architecture. He obtained his Ph.D. at University of Amsterdam on an column-store database architcture (MonetDB), and spent some years using this system for real-time marketing analysis applications in a data-mining start-up. This company has since been acquired by SPSS. Peter Boncz is now a research scientist at Dutch research institute CWI, located in Amsterdam. He currently works on architecture-conscious databases, and (distributed) XML data management.