Piero Migliorato was born in Rome, Italy. He received his Doctorate in Physics from the University of Rome in 1969. Soon afterwards, he joined the Rome Solid State Electronics Institute of the Italian Research Council (CNR), and, subsequently, the Solid State Physics Group in Rome University. He also spent extended periods at Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ, as a Member of Technical Staff and at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (now DERA) in the UK, as a Principal Scientific Officer. Up to 1983, his research concentrated on materials and devices for optoelectronics (GaP and CuInSe2 light-emitting diodes, CdS/ CuInSe2 heterojunction detectors and solar cells, extrinsic silicon and CdTe/HgCdTe mid-infrared detectors).
In 1983 he moved to England permanently, joining the Hirst Research Centre of the General Electric Company (UK). Here he led the polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor research since its inception, becoming Chief Divisional Scientist. From 1997 through 1989 he was Visiting Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at Liverpool University. In 1989, he joined Cambridge University, where he held the Professorship of Physical Electronics in the Department of Engineering and was a Fellow of Trinity College. He had continued in Cambridge to work on various aspects of polycrystalline silicon technology. With his group, he had developed models and simulation software for polysilicon TFTs, that are currently employed by major industrial laboratories.
