Shaban B. Sulejman

• Research Fellow
• University of Melbourne
• sulejmans@unimelb.edu.au
• @shaban-b-sulejman-878326199/

Research Interests

• Nanophotonics
• Metasurfaces
• Imaging and Image Processing
• Biomedical Photonics

Education

• Bachelor of Science (Mathematical Physics) - The University of Melbourne (2017-2019)
• Master of Science (Physics) - The University of Melbourne (2020-2021)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Physics) - The University of Melbourne (2022-2025)

Achievements & Awards

• Chancellors Award for Excellence in PhD Research - University of Melbourne (2026)
• Fulbright Scholarship - Fulbright Australia (2024)
• Postgraduate Student Prize - Australian and New Zealand Optical Society (2024)
• Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship - International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE, 2023)
• Leader of the Year Award - TMOS (2023)
• Dr Alan Kenneth Head PhD International Research Award - University of Melbourne (2023)
• Ernst & Grace Matthaei Scholarship - University of Melbourne (2022)
• Dixson Scholarship in Experimental Physics - University of Melbourne (2022)
• N. D. Goldsworthy Scholarship for Physics - University of Melbourne (2020)

Themes

• Detect, Manipulate

Dr Shaban Sulejman is a Research Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), based in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Sulejman’s research interests are in applied nanophotonics and meta-optics, with a focus on ultrathin optical metasurfaces. Motivated by growing up in a rural community, his work aims to design metasurfaces that could reduce the size and cost of advanced diagnostic and sensing instruments so that access to them is not confined to well-equipped laboratories. He currently leads experimental programs on tunable metasurfaces for all-optical feature recognition and single-shot birefringence imaging. He also serves as the Lead Entrepreneur on a project investigating non-invasive gender determination of chicken eggs before incubation, in collaboration with the Melbourne Veterinary School and Australian Eggs, funded by an Ignite grant from Australia’s Economic Accelerator program.

Dr Sulejman completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Melbourne in 2025 within TMOS, supervised by Professor Ann Roberts, Professor Ken Crozier, Professor Andrey Sukhorukov and Dr Lukas Wesemann. His thesis was awarded the 2026 Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in PhD Research, and was nominated for the 2026 Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Physics (2019) and a Master of Science in Physics (2021), both from the University of Melbourne. During his candidature, he spent five months in 2025 as a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at the Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York, supervised by Professor Andrea Alù.

Dr Sulejman has published eight refereed journal articles, five as first or co-first author, in journals including Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Small and ACS Photonics, spanning phase-contrast microscopy, optical sensing and nanoscale colour printing. He has also published eight refereed conference proceedings and delivered fifteen conference presentations across Australia, Asia and the United States, and has been an invited speaker at Harvard University, the City University of New York, the University of Stuttgart and the University of Melbourne.

Dr Sulejman’s work has been recognised through more than thirty competitive scholarships, prizes and awards, including a 2024 Fulbright Future Scholarship, the 2024 ANZOS Postgraduate Student Prize, the SPIE Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship, and TMOS awards for Industry, Collaboration and Leader of the Year. His research collaborations span the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dorevitch Pathology, RMIT University, the University of Stuttgart, the City University of New York, the Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Eggs. He also serves as a reviewer for npj Nanophotonics, Optics Express, Optics Letters and Optical Materials Express.

Dr Sulejman actively contributes to science communication and outreach, particularly in regional Victoria. He has represented the University at schools, science roadshows and public events, made regular media appearances, held committee roles in professional societies and served as a Faculty of Science ambassador.

Current Projects

• Metasurfaces for all-optical feature recognition
• Metasurfaces for single-shot birefringence imaging