J. Peter Gierow obtained his PhD in biochemistry at Lund University, Sweden in 1988. He was then a post-doctoral fellow at Department of Physiology & Biophysics and at Department of Ophthalmology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine (USC), Los Angeles, USA 1988-1993, followed by a position as Assistant Professor at Department of Cell & Neurobiology, USC 1993-1994. He was a Senior Lecturer at University of Kalmar; Kalmar, Sweden 1995-2008, before becoming Professor of Biochemistry at the same university, now renamed as Linnaeus University. He was the Director of the optometry programme since its start in 2002 until 2016, and also Head of the Department of Medicine and Optometry at the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, Linnaeus University 2013-2018.

He is also Adjunct Faculty at the University of Houston College of Optometry since 2006. He has served as a member of the Lacrimal Gland Study Group, 1996-2000, of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society, 2002-2013, of the ARVO International Members Committee 1998-2001. He became a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry in 2002, and is currently the President of the AAO European Chapter. Swedish coordinator of the International Contact Lens Survey 2013-2020. His research interests are in the field of tear film and lacrimal gland physiology, as well as dry eye syndromes. Since 2019 involved in the Human Brain Project (EU).