Simon Connell is professor of physics within the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg with interests in particle, nuclear, solid state, quantum and applied physics. He is the founding member of the South African participation in High Energy Physics at the ATLAS Experiment at CERN. He has published over 150 papers in International Journals and is an ATLAS author. He has worked for many years at the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF). He has been very active in the service of the discipline and is a past President of the South African Institute of Physics. Together with the colleagues in South Africa, Africa and globally, he has promoted access of Africans to large scale research infrastructures with a special focus on Light Sources, which are premier international multi-disciplinary research tools. This is also reflected in the African Light Source (AfLS) Project.