Prof Andrew Forbes received his PhD in 1998 from the University of Natal (South Africa), and subsequently spent several years as an applied laser physicist, first in a technology start-up where he was Technical Director, and later as Chief Researcher and Research Group Leader of the Mathematical Optics group at the CSIR. Andrew is presently a Distinguished Professor within the School of Physics, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) where he has established a new laboratory for Structured Light. Andrew is active in promoting photonics in Africa, a founding member of the Photonics Initiative of South Africa and initiator of South Africa’s Quantum Roadmap. He is a Fellow of both SPIE and the OSA, an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), and holds an A-rating by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). He holds 3 honorary professor positions and in 2015 won a national award for his contributions to photonics in South Africa. In 2020 he was awarded the Georg Forster prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for outstanding contributions to photonics. Andrew spends his time having fun with the taxpayers’ money, exploring structured light in lasers as well as classical and quantum optics.
