In 2012, Shaalan earned his Ph.D. from Toyama University, Japan, in nanomaterials and functional materials sciences. He worked as an assistant professor and then as an associate professor at both Assiut University and the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Egypt. In 2016, he earned a postdoctoral fellowship from Nagoya University from the Renewable Energy Lab in the Materials Sciences Department. Currently, Shaalan is an associate professor of materials sciences at King Faisal University, KSA. His research focuses on nanomaterials and functional materials for sensing and energy devices. He is the supervisor of the “Sensing Group” at Assiut University and King Faisal University and a cosupervisor of the "Sensing and Energy Materials Group Lab" at Egypt-Japan University.