Andrew received his PhD (1998) from the University of Natal, and subsequently spent several years working as an applied laser physicist, first for the South African Atomic Energy Corporation and then later in a private laser company where he was Technical Director. Andrew sits on several international conference committees, chairs the SPIE international conference on Laser Beam Shaping and is Chair of the OSA’s Holography and Diffractive Optics group. He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a Fellow of SPIE.