Professor Thas Nirmalathas elected Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
Optical and wireless communications innovator Professor Thas Nirmalathas has been elected a 2022 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).
Professor Nirmalathas, also the Deputy Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT), was acknowledged for his contributions to research translation through knowledge transfer activities including consultancy, policy influence, international standardisation, and spin-outs.
Dean of FEIT Professor Mark Cassidy congratulated Professor Nirmalathas, and said: “We are thrilled that Professor Nirmalathas's exceptional leadership and contribution to Australian STEM innovation has been recognised by his peers. His passion for research translation and entrepreneurial spirit have led to extensive contributions to his discipline across the globe,”
“ATSE is Australia’s foremost impact network for leading applied scientists, technologists and engineers.” Professor Cassidy said.
Professor Nirmalathas has worked on collaborative projects with a range of industry partners, from major industry organisations to small and medium enterprises, and co-founded one of Australia’s first start-up accelerators, the Melbourne Accelerator Programin 2012.
Professor Nirmalathas's research achievements have shaped the progress of microwave photonics, optical-wireless network integration, broadband networks, photonic reservoir and edge computing, and scalability of telecom and internet services. His collaborative research into energy efficiency of internet and telecommunications services led to the development of ITU industry standard.
His current research explores the use of microwave photonic technologies to build the next generation wireless networks and photonic computing architectures.
His experience in managing multi-institution collaborations includes a period as Group Head of Networked Systems at National ICT Australia (2005-2008), and Director and Program Manager (2000-2004) of the Photonics Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) – leading the telecommunications technologies research program, as well as a node of the CRC with industry contracts and research projects across five universities.
Professor Nirmalathas joins almost 900 Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, founded in 1975 as one of Australia’s four learned Academies.