Panu Maijala was born in Kuopio, Finland, in 1970. He received the degree of Master of Science in Technology in 1999 from Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), Espoo, Finland. His Master's thesis dealt with binaural technology and evaluation of sound quality. He has been working at the ABB Industry during 1992-1995 as a designer of electromechanical parts and a foreman. At the Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing (at HUT) he was during 1996-1999. At the university he was involved in acoustic measurements and signal processing research in the areas of binaural technology and psychoacoustics. Currently, he is working at the Finnish Research Center, VTT (since 1999) as a research scientist with the topics of environmental acoustics, aeroacoustics, electroacoustic transducers, psychoacoustics, and sound quality. He is teaching acoustics at the Tampere University of Technology (since 2001) and in some institutes. Currently he's working on his doctoral thesis considering outdoor sound propagation. The thesis will be complete for defense during 2006. His research interests include binaural technology, digital signal processing, machinery acoustics, measurements in acoustics, musical acoustics, product sound quality, psychoacoustics, and standardization. On the field of music, he graduated from the Music Academy of Kuopio in 1989 and he is a semi-professional musician. He plays some stringed, woodwind, brass, percussion, and keyboard instruments and composes and writes words to songs. In addition to playing instruments he likes signing. Concerning the music styles he is omnivorous but enjoys particularly playing with his own house band consisting of his four children and wife. Mr. Maijala is a member of the Audio Engineering Society, and the Acoustical Society of Finland.