[2] He served in the army for a year during the Second World War, and went on to study at the University of Lille after demobilisation.
[2] In 1949, he joined the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, where he would remain for the rest of his career.
[1] In association with Louis Fage, Forest began working on hermit crabs, and rapidly became an expert; he described over 70 new species in the family Diogenidae, for example.
[1] He also published on other Decapoda, including crabs and, most significantly, Neoglyphea inopinata, a living species of a group previously considered long-since extinct.
[1] He was also involved with the scientific journals Bulletin du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and Crustaceana.