Andy Fisher attended Plymouth Polytechnic (now the University of Plymouth) as an undergraduate between 1984 and 1987. On graduating he undertook his PhD studies at the same institute under the supervision of Prof. Les Ebdon and Prof. Steve Hill. On completing his PhD in 1991 he remained in Plymouth, completing several post-doctoral fellowships and becoming a research technician. He spent nearly 30 years teaching undergraduates and training postgraduates in the use of analytical techniques including FAAS, ETAAS, ICP-OES, ICP-MS along with the associated sample preparation protocols. In recent years he has also moved into analysis using XRF and portable XRF. In addition to his teaching duties, he has also undertaken consultancy work requiring inorganic analysis and participated in numerous inter-laboratory comparison/certification exercises.