He graduated with a PhD in supramolecular inorganic chemistry, under the supervision of Prof Peter Tasker, from the University of Edinburgh in 2008. A three year postdoctoral position (2008-2011) with Nobel Laureate Prof Sir J Fraser Stoddart at Northwestern University, USA, saw him research organic interlocked molecules, chemical topology and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). He returned to Scotland in 2011 as a senior research fellow in Prof Lee Cronin’s group at the University of Glasgow, investigating hybrid materials and applications of 3D-printing. After 11 months, he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2012-2021) to begin his independent academic career, with subsequent promotions to Reader in 2016 and Professor in 2019.

To date Forgan has published 99 papers and 2 patents, and has given many invited seminars and lectures at conferences and universities around the world. In 2016 he won a highly prestigious ERC Starting Grant, while he was awarded the Sessler Early Career Researcher Prize in 2018, the RSC Bob Hay Lectureship in 2020, and the RSC Peter Day Memorial Prize in 2024. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, where he is President of its Porous Materials Interest Group. He is Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity Led, Mission-Driven Research. He also currently teaches the Chemistry 1 Transition Metals lecture course - click here for additional materials - and the final year i4 Applied Coordination Chemistry course. He is the Head of the Functional Molecules and Assemblies Research Grouping and the School of Chemistry Impact Champion.