Benjamin John Eggleton, , (born 6 November 1970) is Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. He is also Professor in the School of Physics where he leads a research group in integrated photonics,

nonlinear optics Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in Nonlinearity, nonlinear media, that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity ...

and smart sensors and serves as co-director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN).

Education and career

Eggleton obtained the bachelor's degree (with honours) in Science in 1992 and PhD degree in physics from the

in 1996. In 1996, he joined

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

Lucent Technologies Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the div ...

as a Postdoctoral Member of Staff in the Optical Physics Department under the supervision of Dr Richart E. Slusher. In 1998 he transferred to the Optical Fiber Research Department as a Member of Technical Staff and was promoted to Technical Manager of the Fiber Gratings Group in 2000. He was then promoted to Research Director within the Specialty Fiber Business Division of Bell Laboratories, where he was engaged in forward-looking research supporting Lucent Technologies business in optical fiber devices. Eggleton returned to the University of Sydney in 2003 as a full Professor and ARC Federation Fellowship in the School of Physics. He was founding Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) and served as Director from 2003 to 2017. In 2009 Eggleton established the Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS) at the

and was the Director from 2009 to 2018. He was an ARC Laureate Fellow and an ARC Federation Fellowship twice. In 2016 Eggleton and Gooding established the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) as the inaugural NSW Innovation Network. Eggleton currently serves as co-director of NSSN. From 2018 to 2022, Eggleton was Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute (Sydney Nano). As of 2022, he was appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) has executive responsibility for pivotal areas of the university's Research Portfolio relating to research policy, performance and conduct including clinical trials, research reporting and compliance. The role has responsibility for research integrity and ethics management.

Research

Eggleton's research links fundamental to applied science and spans physics and engineering. He has made pioneering contributions to nonlinear optics and all-optical signal processing with recent breakthrough achievements in the nonlinear optics of periodic media, slow-light in

photonic crystal A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of Crystal structure, natural crystals gives rise to X-ray crystallograp ...

s and ultrafast planar waveguide

. His research into new classes of nonlinear waveguides has created a new paradigm for photonic chip based ultrafast optical signal processing and his group holds various world records. Eggleton's breakthroughs in the nonlinear optics of

chalcogenide glass Chalcogenide glass (pronounced hard ''ch'' as in ''chemistry'') is a glass containing one or more heavy chalcogens (sulfur, selenium or tellurium; polonium is also a heavy chalcogen but too radioactive to use). Chalcogenide materials behave rather ...

es have led to his demonstrations of new ultrafast optical devices for telecommunications applications, record low-threshold

supercontinuum generation In optics, a supercontinuum is formed when a collection of nonlinear optics#Nonlinear optical processes, nonlinear processes act together upon a pump beam in order to cause severe spectral broadening of the original pump beam, for example using a ...

sources and on-chip parametric sources. His group reported the first demonstration of on-chip stimulated Brillouin scattering, and holds the record for on-chip SBS gain. His fundamental breakthroughs include the first demonstrations of Bragg

soliton In mathematics and physics, a soliton is a nonlinear, self-reinforcing, localized wave packet that is , in that it preserves its shape while propagating freely, at constant velocity, and recovers it even after collisions with other such local ...

and Gap soliton formation in periodic media and of slow-light-enhanced nonlinear optics in photonic crystals.

Publications

Eggleton is the author and coauthor of more than 530 journal publications, including articles in ''

Nature Photonics ''Nature Photonics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Nature Publishing Group. The editor-in-chief is Oliver Graydon. The journal covers research related to optoelectronics, laser science, imaging, communications, and other as ...

'', ''

Nature Physics ''Nature Physics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was first published in October 2005 (volume 1, issue 1). The chief editor is David Abergel. Scope ''Nature Physics'' publishes both pure and appli ...

'', ''

Nature Communications ''Nature Communications'' is a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio since 2010. It is a multidisciplinary journal that covers the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, earth sciences, medic ...

'', ''

Physical Review Letters ''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. The journal is considered one of the most prestigious in the field of physics ...

'', ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'' and '' Optica'' and over 200 invited presentations. His journal papers have been cited 29,000 times according to

Web of Science The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedi ...

with an h-number of 86 (119 in Google Scholar) and has filed over 35 patents.

Awards and honours

He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), IEEE Photonics, the

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) is an independent learned academy that helps Australians understand and use technology to solve complex problems. History The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences was foun ...

(ATSE), and the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

(AAS). Eggleton has received numerous awards for his contributions, including, the 2020 WH "Beattie" Steel Medal from the Australian and New Zealand Optical Society (ANZOS), the 2011

Walter Boas Medal The Walter Boas Medal is awarded by the Australian Institute of Physics The Australian Institute of Physics was established in 1963, when it replaced the Australian Branch of the British Institute of Physics based in London. the

Eureka Prize The Eureka Prizes are awarded annually by the Australian Museum, Sydney, to recognise individuals and organisations who have contributed to science and the understanding of science in Australia. They were founded in 1990 following a suggestion ...

for Leadership in Science, the 2008 NSW Physicist of the Year medal, the 2007

Pawsey Medal The Pawsey Medal is awarded annually by the Australian Academy of Science to recognize outstanding research in the physics by an Australian scientist early in their career (up to 10 years post-PhD). This medal commemorates the work of the late Jos ...

from the Australian Academy of Science, the 2004 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, the 2003 International Commission on Optics (ICO) Prize, the 1998

Adolph Lomb Medal The Adolph Lomb Medal, awarded by the Optical Society is a prize for young scientists (within 10 years of their highest degree) for their contributions to optics. It is named after Adolph Lomb, treasurer of the Optical Society of America from its fo ...

from OSA, the Distinguished Lecturer Award from the IEEE/LEOS, and the R&D100 Award. In 2012, he was awarded an

Australian Laureate Fellowship The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council. Fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. In 2023 8 industry-focused Laureate Fellowships were awarded for the ...

. Eggleton was recipient of the 2017 University of Sydney Vice Chancellors Award for Outstanding Research. Eggleton, together with a team of researchers from the

and the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, won the Australian Museum's 2020 Defence Science and Technology

for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia. In 2022 Eggleton was recognized as Academic of the Year at the 2022 Defence Industry Awards. Eggleton was President of the Australian Optical Society from 2008 to 2010. He was Editor-in-Chief for

Optics Communications ''Optics Communications'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It covers all fields of optical science and technology and was established in 1969. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: *Chemical ...

from 2007 to 2015 and is the Editor-in-Chief for APL Photonics. Eggleton served on the Board of Governors for the

IEEE Photonics Society The IEEE Photonics Society, formerly the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), is a society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), focused on the scientific and engineering knowledge about the field of quantum e ...

from 2015 to 2017

References

External links

Homepage at the University of Sydney
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eggleton, Ben 1970 births Living people Australian physicists University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the University of Sydney Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering