He received his PhD in Physics from MIT in 1995. He has been on the Physics faculty at the University of Texas at Austin since 2004. Previously he has held research positions at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and was on the faculty of the Illinois Institute of Technology. His research interests include nano-photonics, meta-materials with exotic optical properties (especially negative index), near field optics, laser processing of materials on a nanoscale, and advanced particle accelerators. Dr. Shvets was a Department of Energy Postdoctoral Fellow in 1995-96. He was a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2000. His research is supported by DOE, NSF, DARPA, AFOSR, and ARO.