Yuri Kivshar received his PhD degree in Kharkov, Ukraine. He was a Humboldt Fellow at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany and served as a visiting fellow at several research centers and universities in the US and Europe. In 1993, Kivshar moved to Australia where he established the Nonlinear Physics Center at the Australian National University.

Kivshar is a world leader in photonics and metamaterials, who is recognized for his seminal contributions to the study of nonlinear and topological phenomena in light-matter interaction. He is one of the founders of all-dielectric resonant metaphotonics governed by the physics of Mie resonances in dielectric nanoparticles with high refractive index. His innovative ideas and high-impact, influential papers are driving several research fields.

He is currently a Deputy Editor of Photonics Research and has served on several Optica committees. He is a Fellow of Optica, the American Physical Society, the Australian Academy of Science, the Institute of Physics and SPIE. His research has garnered many national and international awards, including International Stephanos Pnevmatikos Award, Lyle Medal, Lebedev Medal, The State Prize  of the Ukraine in Science and Technology, Harrie Massey Medal, Humboldt Research Award, and SPIE Mozi Award. In 2022, Kivshar received the Max Born Award "for pioneering and ground-breaking research in nonlinear metamaterials and all-dielectric resonant metaphotonics that derives unique optical functionalities from electric and magnetic dipolar and multipolar Mie-type resonances underpinning new discoveries in nonlinear and topological nanophotonics."