Education: BA, Geography, University of Liverpool 1967; Dip. Town Planning, Birmingham College of Art 1969

Career: Philip Cooke is University Research Professor in Regional Economic Development and Founding Director (1993) of the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff. He began his professional career as an Assistant Planner with Birmingham City Council in 1969. In 1970 He became Lecturer in the Department of Town Planning at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST)/UVCC until 1985 when he became Reader at UWIST. His research interests lie in studies of biotechnology, regional innovation systems, knowledge economies, entrepreneurship, clusters and networks. Professor Cooke is a UK government advisor on innovation, and advises national and regional governments, the EU, OECD, World Bank and UNIDO on regional innovation systems. He is also editor of European Planning Studies (see url below). In 2003 he was elected Academician of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. In 2004 he was made Distinguished Research Fellow (PRIME) of the University of Ottawa School of Management. He is a board member of the Canadian ISRN and Swedish CIND and CIRCLE research centres.

Honours and awards: Hon. PhD, University of Lund, Sweden 2006

Publications include: numerous books and monographs, including Towards Global Localisation (co-author) 1992, The Rise of the Rustbelt (editor) 1995, Regional Innovation Systems (co-editor) 1998, The Associational Economy: Firms, Regions and Innovation (co-author) 1998, The Governance of Innovation in Europe (co-author) 2000, Knowledge Economies 2002, Strategies for Regional Innovation Systems: Learning, Transfer and Applications (UNIDO Policy Papers) 2003, Regional Innovation Systems (second edition; co-editor) 2004, Regional Economies as Knowledge Laboratories (co-editor) 2004, Clusters & Regional Development (co-editor) 2006; numerous articles in professional journals

Contact details: Address: Centre for Advanced Studies, Cardiff University, 44–45 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3BB, Wales; Tel: +44 (0)29 2087-4944; Fax: +44 (0)29 2087-6147; Email: cookePN@cf.ac.uk ; Website: http://www.cf.ac.uk/cass/ ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/09654313.asp/ .