A/Prof Leon-Saval has more than 16 years of experience in the research area of photonics. He has made breakthrough contributions in the field of specialty optical fibres, astrophotonics and optical instrumentation systems. He has published over 75 international refereed journals and more than 180 conference papers since 2004 with over 6700 citations, and a h-index of 41. A/Prof Leon-Saval has been a member of technical program and management committees on more than 10 international conferences. He is a Senior Member of the Optical Society of America (OSA), and member of the Australian and New Zealand Optical Society (ANZOS). He was the 2019 recipient of the ANZOS John Love Award, that recognizes innovations and technical advances in the field of optics.