Towards a nonlinear optical toolkit for classical and quantum communication with structured photons

Andrew Forbes
Distinguished Professor, School of Physics
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Andrew Forbes is presently a Distinguished Professor within the School of Physics at the U. Witwatersrand (South Africa) where in 2015 he 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 Director of South Africa’s Quantum Initiative.  He is a Fellow of SPIE, Optica, the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP), and an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.  He holds 4 honorary professorships, is editor-in-chief of the IoP’s Journal of Optics and sits on the editorial board of five other international journals. 

Andrew has won several awards, including a national award for his contributions to photonics in South Africa, the Georg Forster prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for outstanding contributions to photonics, the SAIP Gold Medal, the highest award for physics in South Africa, making him the youngest winner to date, the Sang Soo Lee award from Optica and the Korean Optical Society and the TWAS prize for Physics.  Andrew spends his time having fun with the taxpayers’ money, exploring structured light in lasers as well as classical and quantum optics.