graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1990 and received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in materials science and chemistry, respectively, from Stanford University in 1996. While at Stanford he published the first two papers on monolayers on hydrogen-terminated silicon with his adviser Chris Chidsey. By Google Scholar these papers have been cited ca. 800 and 1300 times. After a post-doc at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Germany with Helmut Möhwald studying polyelectrolyte multilayers, he worked in industry for three years – one year with a large chemical company and two years with two start-up companies. In 2000, he became a faculty member at Brigham Young University and is now a full professor there. While at BYU, Linford has studied thin film deposition and characterization, new materials for separations science, statistical methods for data analysis, new materials for long-term digital data storage, and the chemomechanical functionalization of silicon. His work in separations science led to the launch of the Flare chromatography column that was sold by Diamond Analytics. His work in data storage led him to co-found Millenniata (now Yours.co), which sells a DVD disc that lasts 1000 years and a Blu-ray disc that will last at least 300. Linford has more than 350 publications, which include peer-reviewed papers, conference proceedings, book chapters, peer-reviewed contributions to Surface Science Spectra, commercial application notes, tutorial articles, and more than 40 patents. He is an editor for Applied Surface Science, an Elsevier journal with an impact factor of ca. 5.0. He is a contributing editor for Vacuum Technology & Coating (VT&C) for which he writes a ca. monthly column on surface and material characterization. He has been an associate editor for Surface Science Spectra since 2003. In 2014 he was made a fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). In 2015 he was named an Alcuin Fellow at Brigham Young University (an award for excellence in teaching). By Google Scholar, his h-index is 40, his i10-index is 118, and his total number of citations is more than 9200.