Peter Iles


Peter Albert Iles is an American engineer and a former New Zealand cricketer and association football player.
Iles began his cricket career as a leg-spin bowler, but later concentrated on his batting. He played two first-class matches for Auckland, in 1946 and 1952. In 1948 he represented New Zealand Universities at association football as a goalkeeper, and in 1950 he played for the North Island team against the South Island team.
Iles studied at Auckland University College, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1948, and Master of Science with second-class honours in 1952. In the mid-1950s he spent some time in England before moving to Canada.
Iles later moved to the United States, settling in California and becoming an American citizen, where he worked as an engineer developing solar cells, including those used on early American satellites. In 1991, Iles received the William R. Cherry Award from the IEEE Electron Devices Society for his prolonged and sustained contribution to the field of photovoltaic conversion. He continued to publish on the subject until at least 2004, contributing a chapter, "Photovoltaic conversion: space applications", to the Encyclopedia of Energy published by Elsevier that year.