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As the first African and Arab scientist: Obayya Elected Fellow of the Most Prestigious Society in USA

The Board of Directors of The Optical Society (OSA) has elected Dr. Salah Obayya a Fellow of the Society during their 16 September 2019 meeting in Washington, DC, USA. Election to OSA Fellow came as a culmination of his research leadership and seminal contributions to Computational Photonics.

Dr. Salah Obayya has received a letter from President of The Optical Society of America (OSA) congratulating that he was elected Fellow of OSA for research leadership and seminal contributions to Computational Photonics and continued active participation in the field and the work of the Society.

According to the regulations of this prestigious society the total number of elected Fellows doesn’t exceed 0.5% of its members. Since its establishment in 1916, Dr. Salah came as the first Arab and African elected OSA Fellow and affiliated to an Arab and African institution like Zewail City of Science and Technology.

As an OSA Fellow, Dr. Salah Obayya joins a distinguished group of members who have served the Society and the optics and photonics community with distinction.

OSA is the leading professional association of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It is the leading forum for light science and technology. It was founded 100 years ago as The Optical Society of America and has evolved into a global enterprise serving a worldwide constituency. In recognition of its global reach and focus, since 2008 the Society has been known as OSA - The Optical Society.

Salah S A Obayya joined Zewail City of Science and Technology (ZC) in 2012

Where he is now Chair Professor and Founding Director of Center for Photonics and Smart Materials (CPSM). Previously, he was the Vice-Chair for Academic Affairs and Director-General of Research Institutes at the same institution. Prior to Zewail City, he took up several academic posts at Brunel University UK (tenured Associate Professor, 2002), University of Leeds, UK (tenured Professor, 2006) and University of South Wales, UK (tenured Chair Professor, 2008) where he was the Founding Director of Photonics and Broadband Communications (PBC) Research Center and also he was the Director of Postgraduate Programs at the same institution. In May 2006, he has been naturalised as “British” citizen.

He has established an outstanding international reputation in the area of green nanophotonics with focus on the intelligent computational modeling of modern nano-photonic devices enabling technologies needed to realise low-carbon green society. He has published 238 journal publications, mostly in OSA, IEEE and IET/IEE, authored 3 books (Computational Photonics, Wiley 2010 and Computational Liquid Crystal Photonics, Wiley 2016, Computational of Photonic sensors,2018) both are adopted references for Graduate Programs in Photonics at international Universities, and 252 conference papers in international conference in photonics, many of these are invited talks, and keynote lectures, attracted external funding, from both industry and Research Councils, in the region of $ 4M, and supervised to successful completion 30 PhD students, over 70 MSc/MRes/MPhil students and 15 postdoctoral research fellows. He led the team that developed one of the world’s best comprehensive numerical packages for the analysis, design and optimization of nano-photonic devices, and subsystems, where a number of “world-first” numerical approaches have been developed. His numerical package has been widely adopted by both academic and industrial Photonics communities to analyze, design and optimize the performance of a wide range of nano-photonic devices employed for applications in solar cells, optical telecoms, sensing, optical imaging and encryption and other applications.

He has served the International Photonics Society through active contribution to the organization and technical committees of a number of international conferences. Since 2007, he has been an Associate Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, and Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Optical and Quantum Electronics, and served as Guest Editor-in-Chief of J Optical and Quantum Electronics (2010), and founding member of Editorial Board of Materials Theory Journal (Springer) and acted as Reviewer for many international Photonics Journals such as IEEE J Lightwave Technology, IEEE Photonics Journal IEEE J Quantum Electronics, IEEE J Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IET Optoelectronics, OSA Optics Express, OSA Optics Letters, and many others. Moreover, he acted as Technical expert and Reviewer for a number of research funding councils and learnt societies such as Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK, Royal Society, UK, Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, National Academy of Arts and Sciences, Holland, Science and Technology Development Fund, Egypt, National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Egypt and others.

Dr. Obayya was elected Fellow of African Academy of Science (AAS), 2018, elected Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, IET (formerly FIEE), UK, 2010, elected Fellow of The Institute of Physics (IoP), UK, 2010, elected Fellow of The Higher Education Academy, UK, and Senior member of IEEE, USA, 2005, member of Board of Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (Egypt’s National Academy of Science), Member of Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences (WIMCS), UK, Member of Optical Society of America (OSA), Member of International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), USA and Member of Applied Computational Electromganetic Society (ACES).

As remarkable recognition of his research achievements, he was the recipient of many national and international awards and recognitions such as Medal of Science and Arts of the first class, Egypt, 2019, Best Scientific Book, COMSTECH-Awards-2017, 2019, State Appreciation Award, Egypt, 2019, UNESCO Chair, Paris, 2019, Honorary Chair Professor of Photonics, University of Nottingham, UK, 2017, for his outstanding world-class research record, elected Senior Associate by Board of Directors, International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy, 2017, for his pivotal role in photonics research and education in Egypt, The Region and Africa and elected Senior Member by Board of Directors, Optical Society of America, OSA, 2017 for his internationally recognized research in Photonics, UAE President Khalifa Award for Distinguished Arab Professor in Scientific Research in April 2017, Doctor of Science (DSc) degree in Photonics from City University of London in Jan 2016; a degree awarded only to those who gained international distinction in their own fields, Arab Thought Foundation Award in Scientific Creativity (Lebanon), Dec. 2015; only one award in all fields of Science and Engineering is granted each year for one Arab Scientist, Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) Award in Engineering Sciences Creativity, Sept. 2014; only one award is granted each year for an Egyptian Scientist in Engineering Sciences, Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation (Jordan) Award for Arab Scientists in Engineering Sciences, Oct. 2014; only one award is granted each year for one Arab Scientists in Engineering Sciences, State Award of Excellence for Engineering Sciences from the Egyptian State, Sept. 2013; only one scientist is awarded this prestigious award every year, Incentive State Award for Engineering Sciences from the Egyptian State, Sept. 2005, and many others.