Fellow Benjamin J Eggleton received the bachelor's (honors) degree in science and the PhD degree in physics from The University of Sydney, Australia, in 1992 and 1996, respectively. In 1996, he joined Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, USA, as a Postdoctoral Member of Staff, and then transferred to the Department of Optical Fiber Research. In 2000, he became the Research Director within the Specialty Fiber Business Division, Lucent Technologies. He is currently a Professor in physics at The University of Sydney, the Director of The University of Sydney Nano Institute (Sydney Nano), and the Co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN). Previously, he was the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS).

He is the author or co-author of more than 500 journal publications. He was the recipient of the Pawsey Medal from the Australian Academy of Science, the 2004 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, the 2003 International Commission on Optics Prize, the 1998 Adolph Lomb Medal, the Distinguished Lecturer Award from the IEEE/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, and the Research and Development 100 Award. He was the President of the Australian Optical Society during 2008–2010, and he is currently an Editor-in-Chief for APL Photonics. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), and OSA.