Professor Shortland is Professor of Archaeological Science and Director of Cranfield Forensic Institute, one of the ten or so Centres that make up Cranfield Defence and Security. In addition, he is Programme Manager for the Forensic Modular Master Programme, with overall responsibility for its six MSc themes. After reading a BA in geology at the University of Oxford, Professor Shortland spent a year working in the Earth Sciences Department using Pb isotopic techniques to provenance copper and bronze objects from the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean. Exploring the cross over between science and archaeology further, he continued at Oxford to read for a masters degree in Prehistoric Archaeology, before being recruited into the Ministry of Defence, Whitehall to work for six years in a series of security related posts. On leaving the MoD, Andrew returned to Oxford to undertake research in Egyptology, receiving a DPhil for work on vitreous materials from the site of Amarna in Middle Egypt. After a number of years as Research Fellow and then University Research Lecturer at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology in Oxford. Andrew moved to Cranfield University in 2005 and established the Centre for Archaeological and Forensic Analysis. He took over as Director of Cranfield Forensic Institute in 2016.

Professor Shortland leads Cranfield Forensic Institute which specialises in a wide range of niche forensic subjects including ballistics, explosives, failure analysis, imaging, digital forensics, CBRN and aspects of security and intelligence