Ekmel Ozbay received his BS degree in electrical engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in 1983. He received his MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University in electrical engineering, in 1989 and 1992. From 1992-1993, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate in Stanford University. Between 1993 and 1995, he worked as a scientist in DOE Ames National Laboratory at Iowa State University in the area of photonic band gap materials. He joined Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey) in 1995, where he is currently a full professor in physics and electrical and electronics engineering departments.

He is the 1997 recipient of the Adolph Lomb Medal and 2005 European Union Descartes Science award. He is also the recipient of 1995 Parlar Foundation young scientist, 1996 Tugac foundation technology development, 1997 TUBITAK young scientist, 1998 Sedat Simavi Foundation Science, 2006 TUBITAK Science awards. He has been an editor of Optics Letters journal since 2002 and became the editor of Photonics and Nanostructures in 2006. He has published 169 articles in SCI journals and 202 international conference proceedings. His publications have received more than 3000 SCI citations. He holds 2 patents in the area of photonic crystals. He has given 63 invited talks in international conferences. He is a Fellow and Senior Member of OSA.