Prof. Colin J. R. Sheppard obtained his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge (1973). He was a University Lecturer at the University of Oxford and an Official Fellow at Pembroke College. He received a DSc degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Oxford in 1986. From 1989, he was Professor of Physics and Head of the Physical Optics Department at the University of Sydney. From 2003, he was Professor and Head of the Department of Bioengineering at the National University of Singapore. From 2012 to 2017 he was at the Italian Institute of Technology as Senior Scientist. Professor Sheppard is currently an Honorary Professor at the UNSW Sydney, Australia; External Collaborator and Visiting Scientist with the Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa; and Supernumerary Fellow of Pembroke College Oxford. He was elected as a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, IEE, Institute of Physics, Japan Society for Applied Physics, and the Royal Microscopical Society. He was Vice-President of the International Commission for Optics (ICO) and President of the International Society for Optics Within Life Sciences (OWLS).