 Özbay was the 1997 recipient of the Adolph Lomb Medal of the Optical Society of America and in 2005 of the European Union Descartes Science award.He is also the recipient of the 1995 Parlar Foundation young scientist, 1996 Tugac foundation technology development, 1997 TUBITAK young scientist, and 1998 Sedat Simavi Foundation Science awards.Outside of the workplace, Özbay has a number of children.