Alexander BABKEVICH completed his PhD in solid-state physics at the Institute of Metal Physics in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1991. He advanced his research career in the Ukraine, Germany (Institute of Crystallography and Mineralogy, University of Munich) and the UK (Department of Physics, University of Oxford). He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in Germany and the Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellowship in UK. After leaving academia, Alexander worked in synchrotron instrumentation at FMB Oxford and for Adlens, a maker of adjustable eyewear. In 2015 he joined the Opera team at Cobham which in 2018 became part of Dassault Systèmes.