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Nanotech Middle East 2020 Conference and Exhibition

Conference Speakers

Conference Chairs

Prof Daniel Choi

Department Head - Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department, Masdar Institute, UAE

Dr. Daniel Choi received his BSc in Metallurgical Engineering from the Seoul National University (South Korea) and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. Dr. Choi worked as a staff member for three years at the Aerospace Corporation in California, which supports the US Air Force, where developed high-resolution Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Lithography techniques, high-transconductance/low-noise nanometer-scale MOSFET and GaN high-speed electronic devices. He later joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/NASA in 1999 as a task manager, leading a number of space-related projects for nine years. He also has worked on the development of high sensitivity gas sensors, MEMS-gyroscopes, and novel microfluidic ion mobility chromatograph for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project. He served as the committee for NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

Prior to joining the Masdar Institute, Dr. Choi was an associate professor of the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) program for 2007-2013 at University of Idaho (USA), where he developed technologies in the area of energy storage, 3D-nanoelectronics and bio-applications (cancer treatments and smart drug delivery). His leadership at the University of Idaho included serving as the MSE program coordinator to design/improve the programs to meet the requirements of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria, an academic advisor of the Tau Beta Pi University of Idaho chapter, and being the director of the University Nanofabrication Cleanroom Facility.

Currently, Dr. Choi is an associate professor of the Materials Science and Engineering program in the Masdar Institute.

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Prof. Antonio Di Bartolomeo

Salerno University, Italy

Prof Antonio Di Bartolomeo is now Full Professor in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics since 2017 in Experimental Physics at the Salerno University, Italy. He obtained an M.S. in 1993 and Ph.D in 1997 in Physics at the Salerno University, Italy.He had an career in industry as he worked as Device and Integration Engineer at Intel Corporation, Leixlip-Ireland (3.5 years), STMicroelectronics, Phoenix-AZ (1.5 year) and System Engineer at Creative Electronic Systems, Geneva-CH (1 year).He’s working on: Optical and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes, graphene, 2D materials, and composite materials. Semiconductor heterojunctions and their application as photodetectors, solar cells and chemical sensors. Van der Waals heterojunctions of 2D layered materials. Field-effect transistors. Tunneling transistors. Non-volatile memories. CMOS technologies. Solid-state radiation detectors. Field emission.

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Prof . Taleb Ibrahim

American University of Sharjah, UAE

Dr Taleb Ibrahim earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, Alabama, USA. He has taught and worked on research in chemical engineering and chemistry departments for more than 18 years at universities such as Auburn University and Tuskegee University, USA.

His areas of research and teaching interest are interfacial phenomena/surface, colloidal science, materials science, corrosion, separation processes and thermodynamics. In his research, emphasis is placed on problems that are related but not limited to polymers, composite materials, pharmaceutical products, environmental issues and corrosion. He has published over 50 journal and conference papers and organized/co-chair several conferences.

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Keynote Speakers

Prof. Tahar Laoui

University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE

Dr. Tahar Laoui is currently a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at the University of Sharjah, UAE. Prior to this appointment, he was a Professor in Materials & Manufacturing Engineering in Mechanical Engineering Dept. at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA in 1990. His research interests are membrane for water treatment and desalination using nanotechnology, structure-property processing relationships in composite materials, and rapid prototyping technologies.

For the past several years, he has conducted research in joint collaboration with colleagues from Mechanical Engineering Dept. at MIT, USA, on the development of inorganic membranes for water treatment and water desalination by exploring techniques to investigate and understand the transport of water molecules and ions through macro- and nano-structured materials such as zeolites, alumina-based ceramics, carbon nanotubes and graphene.

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Prof. Jean-Marie Basset

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia

Professor Jean-Marie Basset is the Distinguished Professor for Chemical Science in the Physical Science and Engineering Division at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology. Prof. Basset, who has authored more than 500 scientific papers 50 patents, pioneered the field of “Surface Organometallic Chemistry", which focuses on possible relationships between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Professor Basset received his Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Lyon, France. After a postdoctoral position in Toronto, he moved to the Institute of Catalysis in Lyon where he became vice-director. In 1987, he founded the Laboratory of Surface Organometallic Chemistry that became later the laboratory of Chemistry, Catalysis, Polymer, Process (C2P2). Professor Basset’s Lyon lab was home to 100 scientists, including Nobel Laureate Yves Chauvin who got his Nobel in 2005. In 2009 he moved to the King Abdulla University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia as director of the KAUST Catalysis Center.

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Prof. Shahzada Ahmad

Basque center for materials, applications & nanostructures BCMaterials- Bilbao, Spain

Shahzada Ahmad is an Ikerbasque professor (tenure full professor). Prior to his current position, Dr. Ahmad has worked as program director (2012-2017) at Abengoa Research, a research division of multinational energy based conglomerate Abengoa. He was leader for many disruptive technologies with high forecast production growth in the field of energy generation and storage. He finished his Ph.D from National Physical laboratory in the field of Materials chemistry and subsequently moved to the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, as Alexander von Humboldt Fellow to work on surface and interface studies. At École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, he developed nanoporous films for metal-free electro-catalysis and new redox shuttle. Dr. Ahmad is a prolific author and his scientific publications list reflects his diverse field of interest in the domain of physical chemistry, nanotechnology and materials science with a research mission to develop advanced materials for energy application. His work has led to the invitation to speak at many scientific or policy based conferences, inventor of patents, member of young academy of Europe, and his work was also endorsed by European research council consolidator grant (2016). He has been also selected as young champions of 2018 by World Economic forum. He is an advocate of renewable energy and passionately works on radically innovation technologies to address societal challenges.

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Prof. Ricardo Ibarra

University of Zaragoza, Spain

Professor M. Ricardo Ibarra was born in Baza (Granada, Spain) in 1955. In 1979 moved to the University of Zaragoza, where he obtained a PhD in Physics in 1983, under the supervision of Prof. A. Del Moral. He has been developing his academic and research activity as Full professor at the University of Zaragoza since 1995. He was head of Condensed Matter Physic Department (1993-2000), commissioned for the foundation of the Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon (INA) in 2000, and Director since its foundation in 2003. Furthermore, he is Director of the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (LMA) since 2007.

His research has been developed in Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. During the past few years his research activity has been focused on the magnetic properties of nanostructured materials and the application of nanotechnology in biomedicine.

He has coordinated large scale national and international R&D projects on nanotechnology and the application in biomedicine. He is first author or co-author of more than 400 publications -414 papers belonging to the Science Citation Index (18 of them cited more than 100 times). He has an H-index of 49 according to the ISI Web of Knowledge database on 28 September 2015.

He has been invited to many relevant Congresses and Workshops during the last years and selected as Member of several Advisory Committee Boards. He has been the head of the Magnetism Section of the European Physical Society since 2000, and he was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by the AGH University (Krakow – Poland) in 2008.

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Prof. Hicham Idriss

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Saudi Arabia and Chemisty Department (UCL), UK

Hicham Idriss is Fellow at SABIC Corporate Research & Development (CRD) at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia and an Honorary Professor here at the Department of Chemistry. He received his undergraduate (BSc Biochemistry/Chemistry) and postgraduate (MSc Applied Chemistry, PhD Applied Chemistry/Materials Science and Dr. of Science/habilitation (Applied Chemistry/Materials Science) education from the University of Strasbourg (France). Prior to joining SABIC he held positions from 2008 to 2011 as Aberdeen Energy Futures Chair and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen (UK) and from 1995 to 2008 as Associated Professor at the Department of Chemistry, the University of Auckland (New Zealand). His main research work is on the surface reactions of metal oxides both at the experimental and computational levels. In the last decade, he has been focusing his research on hydrogen production from renewables both by thermal and photocatalytic methods. He has about 230 papers and over 150 patents/patents applications. He is member of the editorial board of Catalysis, Structure and Reactivity; Applied Sciences “Environmental and Sustainable Science & Technology" and Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.

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Prof. Jonas Fransson

Uppsala University, Sweden

Fransson completed his PhD in Physics in 2002 at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, and postdoctoral studies The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, and Los Alamos Natl. Lab., Los Alamos, NM, USA. Since 2013 he has been a senior lecturer in theory for highly correlated materials and is active in the department of material theory. He is professor in Physics at Uppsala University since 2015. He has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals and written the text book Non-Equilibrium Nano-Physics.

His current focused research areas include Non-equilibrium condensed matter physics with special attention to the modeling of nanostructures systems and local probing techniques. Particular focus is directed on impurity scattering in two-dimensional systems, where the impurities possess bosonic (vibrational, spin, ...) degrees of freedom which give rise to inelastic scattering processes. Interactions between local defects adsorbed onto surface of modern materials e.g. superconductors, graphene, topological insulators, strongly spin-orbit coupled surfaces, and hidden order materials.

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Prof. Hussam Jouhara

Brunel University London, United Kingdom

Having worked in academia and the industry, Hussam has unique expertise in working on applied heat exchangers and energy-related research activities with direct support from research councils and various UK and international industrial partners. He has extensive expertise in designing and manufacturing various types of heat exchangers, including heat pipes and heat pipe-based heat exchangers for low, medium and high temperature applications. His work in the field of heat pipe based heat exchangers resulted in novel designs for recouperators, steam generators & condensers and flat heat pipes. These have been implemented across various industries including, but not limited to: food, electronics thermal management and low to high industrial waste heat recovery and Energy from Waste. Over the last few years, he has successfully managed to achieve new designs for industrial waste heat recovery and many thermal systems that have enhanced the performance of various industrials processes in the UK, Europe and world-wide.

Throughout his academic and industrial career, he received over £6.5M in research funding from various UK/EU based research councils (RCUK & EU H2020) and from British and European industrial partners. He is a published author of academic books with many filed patents in areas related to heat pipes engineering and manufacturing and Energy from Waste systems. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of both Engineers Ireland (Ireland) and IMechE (UK).

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Prof. Robert E. Simpson,

Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore

Dr Robert E Simpson (Assistant Professor) holds an Assistant Professor position at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. His group’s research lies in the design and development of new materials for applications in photonics, electronics and data storage. Before Joining SUTD Robert spent his postdoc years in Japan and Spain. After completing his PhD he was awarded a fellowship from Japanese Society for Promotion of Science and spent 3.5 years at the CAN-FOR research group, directed by Prof Junji Tominaga, at the Japanese national institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). In Spain Robert joined the group of Prof Valerio Pruneri as a COFUND Marie Currie Fellow at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona.

In 2012 Robert moved to the Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he formed the ACTA research group. The ACTA research group aims to exploit atomistic modelling and experimentation to design new functional chalcogenide materials for applications in photonics, data storage and nanoelectronics. Robert’s PhD is from the University of Southampton, UK, where he studied under the guidance of Prof Dan Hewak in the Optoelectronic Research Centre (ORC). His PhD thesis was titled “Chalcogenide Materials for Next Generation Data Storage”

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Prof. Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil Abdelmawgoud

College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, UAE

Prof. Khalil is currently working as professor and assistant Dean for research and graduate studies in college of Engineering, University of Sharjah. After graduating from Minia University, Faculty of Engineering, in 1990, he worked for three years in Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (SIIC) as a planning and follows up engineer. In July 1995, he moved from SIIC to work as a demonstrator in Faculty of Energy Engineering, Aswan University, Egypt. In 1996 he completed his master’s degree. In 1998 he was accepted into the Trans-Century Training Program for Talents by the Ministry of Education of China and the Ministry of Higher Education of Egypt as a scholarship student to complete his Ph. D degree. He earned PhD in 2002. He got an opportunity for Postdoc fellowship in Chonbuk National University (CBNU), South Korea from 2004-2005. He was later selected through the Long-Term Foreign Faculty Program for another 2 years in the same University. In 2008, he has been appointed as Associate Professor in Faculty of Engineering, King Saud University. He has published more than 100 ISI papers of international standard with high impact factor in addition to 3 patent, two book chapters and two translated books. He has been promoted to the rank of full professor in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt in 2011.

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Prof. Radzuan Bin Junin

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Prof. Junin is currently the Head of Petroleum Engineering Department at Faculty of Petroleum & Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Prof. Radzuan Junin completed his PhD in Petroleum Engineering in 1996 at University of Nottingham, England, U.K.

Also, He has published more than 127 papers in reputed journals. Besides, His current focused research areas include Oil Mobilization, Oil Recovery, Drilling Nanotechnology, Geochemistry…

He was awarded Silver Medal of Industrial Art & Technology Exhibition (INATEX 2001), Bronze Medal, (ITEX 2001). Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Staff Excellence and Consultancy Excellence Awards (2004) of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

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Dr. Hui-Lin Chang

Micron Technology, Manassas VA, USA

Dr. Hui-Lin Chang is currently a Senior Member of Technical Staff in GlobalFoundries. Her previous work experience includes working in Samsung Electronics in South Korea as a Principal Engineer and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) as a Technical Manager in Hsin Chu, Taiwan, as well as a Senior Researcher in National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. She served as a technical program committee member at the 6th International Conference on Mechanical Science and Engineering (ICMSE2015), organized by the International Association of Applied Science and Engineering Technology (IAASET).

Hui-Lin Chang was awarded a PhD in Material Science and Engineering from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 2002. She also received an Executive Master’s degree of Business Administration (EMBA) from National Chiao Tung University and the University of California – Berkeley in 2010. In addition, in 2016, she was designated a Stanford Certified Project Manager by the Stanford University Center for Professional Development.

Hui-Lin Chang has been awarded 24 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), many of which have also been published by the USPTO's counterpart in China, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). In addition to her many granted patents, she is a named inventor of 10 pending patent applications. Hui-Lin Chang’s contributions to the existing academic literature and industrial practices related to fracture mechanisms of nanoelectronic devices, in particular her novel testing approaches, are truly original and significant.

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Dr. Giovanni Palmisano

Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi - UAE

Dr. Giovanni Palmisano is an associate professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. He earned his MSc in Chemical Engineering and his PhD in Chemical and Materials Engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy. Before joining Khalifa University (then Masdar Institute), Dr. Palmisano’s research activities were mainly developed in Italy and Spain and concern photo-catalytic processes for organic chemistry, hydrogen production, water and air remediation, and self-cleaning coatings, with a special attention to materials characterization, kinetics, modelling of photo-reactors and radiant fluxes. From 2009 to 2012, he was administrator, chief engineer and safety manager at Hedera Engineering Srl – an Italian company operating in design and construction of photovoltaic plants in Italy. From 2008 to 2013 he has held free-lance consulting activity for private companies and Italian municipalities. Dr. Palmisano has co-authored ca. 95 highly cited papers in peer-reviewed international journals, and he has to his record seven patents, six books and six invited book chapters. He is regularly invited to offer lectures and serve as chair-person at international conferences and workshops. He is member of the editorial board of three international journals and he has guest-edited three special issues of international journals. He has been main advisor of 5 PhD students and advisor or coadvisor of 6 MSc students, one of whom won the best thesis award in Chemical Engineering and the outstanding thesis award in Masdar Institute.

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Prof. Ammar Nayfeh

Khalifa University, UAE

Dr. Ammar Nayfeh was born in Urbana IL in 1979. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2001 in electrical engineering and his master's degree in 2003 from Stanford University. Dr. Nayfeh earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2006.  His research focused on heteroepitaxy of Germanium on Silicon.  After his PhD, he joined Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as a researcher working in collaboration with IBM.  Following that, he then spent a year as a consultant with PDF solutions and later joined a silicon valley start-up, Innovative Silicon (ISi) in 2008. In addition, he was a part time professor at San Jose State University. In June 2010, he joined MIT as a visiting scholar and became a faculty member at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, UAE. At Masdar Institute currently now Khalifa University he is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.   His primary research interests is on new material systems for future more efficient low power semiconductor devices. This included transistors, memory, photovoltaics, and photodetectors.  Professor Ammar Nayfeh has authored or co-authored over 100 publications, and holds three patents. He is a member of IEEE, MRS and Stanford Alumni Association.  He has received the Material Research Society Graduate Student Award, the Robert C. Maclinche Scholarship at UIUC, and Stanford Graduate Fellowship.

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Dr. Tapas Sen

University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom

Tapas completed his first degree in Chemistry (BSc. Hons) followed by a Master in Physical Chemistry (MSc) and a PhD in Materials Chemistry from the premier research institution, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India. He worked at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel during 1997 to 1999 in the world leading Solid state NMR group as a post-doctoral visiting scientist. He then moved to UK in February 2000 and worked as a postdoctoral Research Fellow in the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), Manchester (2000-2003) on an industrial project funded by ICI Synetix. He later worked on multimillion Euro projects under EU framework V and VI programmes (2003-2008) in various parts of UK before joining as a lecturer in Chemistry (December 2008) at the University of Central Lancashire. Currently he is leading the Nano-biomaterials Research group dedicated on researching in the area of nanomaterials and their applications in separation science, drug delivery, industrial catalysis and bio-sensors. Currently the group is running three multinational projects in collaboration with world leaders from academia and industries.  Tapas organised the first International Symposium on Functional Nanomaterials in Industrial Applications at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in March 2016. 

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Dr. Ahmad Alshammari

National Center for Nanotechnology Research - King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Arabia

Dr. Ahmad Alshammari received the B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2001, the M.Sc. degree in Designing Chemical Solutions from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K., in 2005, and then he studied chemistry at Leibniz Institute for Catalysis at the University of Rostock, where he completed his PhD thesis in the end of 2010 in the group of Prof. Axel Schulz and PD Dr. habil. Andreas Martin. In 2011, he joined the Petrochemical Research Institute, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh, where among other things he focused on the application of Heterogeneous Catalysis in different area. Presently he is Assistant Research Professor in the National Center for Nanotechnology Research, KACST. His principle research field is focused mainly on the application of nanomaterials in different area such as catalysis, photocatalysis, and energy. His scientific work has been published in more than 40 original publications. In addition, 6 patent applications have been granted in the last three years.

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Dr. Maguy Abi Jaoude

Khalifa University of Science and Technology – Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Maguy Abi Jaoude acquired her PhD degree in Analytical Chemistry in 2011, from the University of Claude Bernard - Lyon 1. In 2012, she held an adjunct chemistry instructor position at the same institution, and later joined Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KU) in Abu Dhabi, in 2013, as Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Through her latest appointment, she has served on various academic program development committees and was recently presented with the 2018 Faculty Service Excellence award. She is currently a member at the Center for Membrane and Advanced Water Technologies (CMAT), and the Center for Catalysis and Separation (CeCaS) at KU.

Her research interests encompass the areas of materials chemistry and separation sciences, where she focuses on the development of sol-gel and hydrothermal methods, to produce exotic and hierarchically structured oxides of rare-earth and transition elements. She is particularly interested in establishing an understanding of the structure-property relationships of advanced materials, in application to the purification of air and water by heterogeneous photocatalysis, as well as the separation of environmental mixtures.

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Prof Ali Bumajdad

Kuwait University- Kuwait

Ali Bumajdad is a professor at Kuwait University. His specialty is nanoparticles and nanotechnology with focus on surfaces and colloidal properties of nanomaterials.  He has special interests synthesizing, characterizing and test the catalytic activity of nanomaterials prepared using wet chemistry methods with focus on colloidal templates and sol/gel processes. In his research he also targeted materials with environmental, renewable energy, sensors, and green chemistry applications (e.g. pure and doped CeO2, TiO2 and ZnO, Ag, graphine and carbon nanotube), magnetic and drug delivery applications (Fe2O3), and microbial and cancer applications (Au & Ag). He is also interested in liquid crystals research  and he is familier with many characterization techniques (both bulk- and surface-related like XPS, HR-TEM, SEM, AFM XRD, N2 sorptiometery, TGA, DTA, IR, Raman …etc).

Porf. Bumajdad Published more than 45 peer-reviewed paper and he was the chair of the first Kuwait International Nanotechnology Conference and Exhibition that was held in 2016.

 

Editorial Activities:

Reviewer to 37 international journals in the field of  nanotechnology and surface chemistry (e.g. Langmuir, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science,  Journal of Physical Chemistry, Materials Letters, Material Research Bulletin, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Current NanoScience, Nanoparticle Research, Nanotechnology, Journal of Colloid and Surfaces A,  Journal of Colloid and Polymer Science, Journal of Materials and Manufacturing Processing, Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, Journal of Surface Science and Technology, Chemical Engineering Communication, Journal of Materials and manufacturing Process, Journal of Molecular Liquids,  Journals of Energy and Fuels…..etc).

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Prof. Amal Al Ghaferi

Khalifa University, UAE

Dr Amal is an Assistant Professor in the area of Materials Science and Engineering. She obtained her Ph.D.in Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pittsburgh in January 2007. Prior joining Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Al Ghaferi was an assistant Professor at the Physics Department at UAE University in Al Ain, where she got her academic experience in teaching fundamental and advance courses in Physics.

Dr. Al Ghaferi's research interest is in nanotechnology and how to implement nanotechnology in the renewable energy field. Her main teaching Interests include: Materials for Energy Applications; Electrochemical Processing of Materials on the Nanoscale; Fundamentals of Advanced Energy Conversion; Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering Nanotechnology, Organic Memory Devices, Organic/inorganic Photovoltaic Devices, etc.

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Dr. Kyriaki Polychronopoulou

Khalifa University of Science and Technology, United Arab Emirates

Dr. Kyriaki Polychronopoulou is currently Assoc. Prof. of Mechanical Engineering at Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KUST, UAE), and Visiting Professor at ETH-Zurich. Recently she was awarded the Directorship of the Catalysis and Separation Center at Khalifa University, the first Center of its type in the UAE.

She holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cyprus (2005). Before her appointment at Khalifa University she was Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University (IL, USA) and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (IL, USA). During her independent career she has also worked as Research Fellow in the National Physical Laboratory (UK), Texas A&M (USA), and KAIST (Korea). She is recipient of the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) Award for Research Excellence in two consecutive rounds in 2017 and 2015. She is also recipient of the 2015 Khalifa University Faculty Excellence Award for Outstanding Research, the 2007 Fulbright Award for Advanced Research in the US, and a 2008 British Council Award for Research.

Her research contribution is focused on the development of catalysts (oxides, sulfides, metal supported catalysts) and adsorbents for hydrocarbon reactions (e.g. steam reforming, Water gas shift) and gas separation processes. She is also focusing on porous materials for H2 storage, and CO2 capture. She is highly interested in the microstructural characterization of adsorbents and catalytic surfaces and their performance/structure correlation. Other professional activities include her role as expert evaluator of projects for EU, NSF, and the HongKong Research Council.

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Prof. Junais Mokkath

Kuwait College of Science And Technology, Kuwait

Prof. Dr. Junais completed his PhD in theoretical physics in 2012 from Kassel University, Kassel, Germany, and postdoctoral studies at Kassel University, Germany, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, National Institute for Material Science, Japan, and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Since 2017 he is anassistant professor in computational material science at Kuwait College of Science And Technology. He has published more than 65 papers in reputed peer reviewed international journals. His current research areas include plasmonics and magnetism at the nanoscale.

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Prof. Basma El Zein

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia

Dr. ELZein Dean of Scientific Research, University of Business and Technology (UBT) , Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,  She was a research scientist at KAUST and associate researcher at IEMN, France. Dr. El Zein is a grand Judge at Intel ISEF- USA, examiner at King Abdul Aziz city for science and Technology ( KACST), and a renowned guest speaker at many international conferences on renewable energy and nanotechnology. During her previous positions, she supervised many Ph.D. students and around 200 final year projects - bachelor degree. She is a reviewer for many international, peer-reviewed journals, the chair or co-chair and on committees of different international conferences. Dr. El Zein is a senior member of IEEE, member of ACS, MRS, SPIE, ECS, IET, AUTM, AAAS, AASBC, ECS and Lebanese Engineering Syndicate. 

Dr. Basma graduated from the University of Lille, France with a Ph.D. in Nanotechnology Engineering with High Distinction for her research Zinc Oxide Nanostructures for Photovoltaic Applications. Her master degree was from the Lebanese University, Lebanon in the field of Electrical and Electronics Engineering with Distinction.

Her research interest is currently in Energy Conversion and Energy Storage. The main objective of Dr. El Zein research is to develop an eco-green Solar Cells with high efficiency and long durability. In addition, she is exploring new materials such as kesterite, perovskite, and protein to be used as a light absorber for Solid State Sensitized Solar Cells. She is also exploring Printed Metal Oxide Batteries.

Her previous research included Telecommunication, Artificial Intelligence, auto-control and auto-command by programmable logic controllers, and Computer Vision. She has a textbook entitled “Nanostructured materials for Photovoltaic applications” and she has many publications in this field. Additionally, she published in many international journals and has one patent filed in the USA related to materials for Solar Cells. 

Dr. El Zein was acknowledged for her remarkable contribution to the field of research, teaching, community service, and industry in Saudi Arabia.

She has been featured by Marquis Who’s Who as top scientist and top educator  in 2019.

She was awarded:

- The Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement award in 2018 by Marquis Who’s Who.

- Solar Pioneer by Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) during the world future energy summit 2015, Abu Dhabi. 

- Distinguished Achievement Award in Solar Energy and Nano-Technology, by:

• Lebanese Embassy in Emiratis, 2015

• Lebanese Business Council in Emiratis, 2015

• LU-EDST AZM Biotechnology Center, 2015

• Lebanese University, 2015

• Lebanese Cultural Council, 2015

- Granted 2 funded research for her research on Nanomaterials for 3rd generation Solar Cells in 2013 and 2014.

- Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century in 2010 

- Top 100 educators in 2010

- Who’s who the world, 2000

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Invited Speakers

Dr. Mazhar UL-Islam

Dhofar University, Salalah, Oman

Dr. Mazhar Ul Islam is working as assistant professor in department of chemical engineering, Dhofar University. He completed his PhD from Kyungpook national University, South Korea and remained as Post Doc fellow and later contract professor in same institute for 2 years. Dr. Mazhar UL-Islam has published more than 60 articles in the field of nanomaterials, biopolymers and nanocomposites in renowned International journals. Also, he presented works at many national and International conferences. Dr. Mazhar UL-Islam contributions have acclaimed recognition from honourable subject experts around the world.

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