Michael W. Hinds earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry. He is now retired from the position of Assay Chemist at the Royal Canadian Mint after 31 years. He has been instructing XRF short courses since 2005 and presently acts as technical consultant to the LBMA. He has published 46 papers and was co-author of the textbook Elemental Analysis, (De Gruyer, 2019).