Professor Salah Obayya has joined Zewail City of Science and Technology (ZC) in 2012 and currently holds the position of Director General of Research Institutes and Founding Director of the Center for Photonics and Smart Materials (CPSM). Before joining Zewail City, he held various academic roles at institutions such as Brunel University UK (as a tenured Associate Professor in 2002), University of Leeds, UK (as a tenured Professor in 2006), and University of South Wales, UK (as a tenured Chair Professor in 2008). Notably, he was the Founding Director of the Photonics and Broadband Communications (PBC) Research Center at the University of South Wales.

Over the years, he has built a strong international reputation in the field of green nanophotonics, focusing on computational modeling of modern nano-photonic devices to enable technologies for a low-carbon green society. his extensive publication record includes 346 journal publications, 3 authored books, and 277 conference papers. he has secured significant external funding from both industry and Research Councils, in the region of $ 4.4M , supervised numerous PhD and postgraduate students over 130 students, and developed a comprehensive numerical package for analyzing nano-photonic devices.

Furthermore, he has actively contributed to the International Photonics Society and held editorial roles in prominent journals as he is an Editor-in-chief of Optical and Quantum Electronics (OQEL), and Senior Editor of the IEEE Photonics Journal. his outstanding contributions have been recognized through various fellowships from prestigious organizations such as IEEE, TWAS, OPTICA, APS, SPIE, AAS, ACES, HEA, IET, IOP.