Brian Foster obtained his D. Phil from Oxford in 1978. He then went on to lead the particle physics group at Bristol until 2003, subsequently returning to Oxford as head of Particle Physics from 2004 to 2011. In 2010 Foster was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship at the University of Hamburg/DESY. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Royal Society and was its Vice-President in 2018. In 2003, he won the Max Born Medal and was appointed OBE. He is Donald H. Perkins Professor Emeritus of Experimental Physics at Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College.