Prof. Mike Kosch was born and raised in Durban, South Africa, where he also achieved his BSc Electronic Engineering in 1984 and PhD in Space Physics in 1991 following a life-changing experience over-wintering at the SANAE Antarctic research station 1984-1986. He was based for over 2 decades in Europe, first as a postdoc and scientist at the Max-Planck Institute in Germany during the 1990s and then as a lecturer, professor of Experimental Space Science and faculty research Dean at Lancaster University in the UK during the 2000s. He has held research fellowships in Australia, 3 times Japan and twice USA as well as many research visits to Norway and Alaska. Since 2014, he is the chief scientist at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus, managing the Space Research and Applications group including the Space Weather Unit. He also co-directs EnviroVision Solutions, a spin-out company specialising in rapid wildfire smoke detection with a focus on commercial forests. His research has focussed mainly on auroral physics and the electrodynamics of the polar upper-atmosphere, primarily using night-vision optics and radars, as well as experimental plasma physics using high-power radio waves beamed into the ionosphere as a natural laboratory. He has led many experiments at major international facilities (e.g. EISCAT in Scandinavia, HAARP in Alaska, and Sura in Russia). To support the research, he operates 2 optical observatories in Norway, 1 in South Africa and assembles bespoke optical instruments. He is PI for the South African SuperDARN radar, located in Antarctica. He has published over 160 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and graduated over 50 postgraduate students.