Best Researcher-SCME

Associate Professor

Ph.D. (Biomaterials)

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Dr. Usman Liaqat completed his BS in Engineering in Metallurgy and Materials Science from the University of Punjab in 2009. Afterward, Dr. Liaqat joined a private industry in Lahore as an R&D officer and then as a Project Manager. During his time in the industry, he completed multiple projects at different Cement and Sugar Plants. In 2012, he went to South Korea for PhD on HEC merit based scholarship and completed his Ph.D. degree in 2017 in Engineering (Nanoscience and Technology) from Yonsei University.

Later, Dr. Liaqat joined NUST as an Assistant Professor and since then he has been teaching at both UG and PG levels along with active participation in research and administrative duties. Dr. Liaqat is passionate about his research in nanomaterials synthesis, characterization, and their applications in various fields i.e., drug delivery, biosensors, tissue regeneration, and many more and he has more than 25 Research Articles published in reputable journals.

Apart from that, no one can deny his managerial and leadership skills as he is also working as a Postgraduate Coordinator, Surface Engineering Laboratory in charge, lead of NUST Materials Advantage Chapter, and member of the OBE team at the Materials Engineering Department.

It is for his excellent teaching skills and hard work that he was awarded Best Teacher Award for the year 2019.

Associate Professor
Ph.D. (Membrane Technology)

Dr. Zaib, an Associate Professor in the field of Membrane Technology, has truly distinguished herself with over 7 research projects and a combined grant of over 30 Million PKR. Dr. Zaib has published 59 research articles & conference papers with a citation count of more than 2500 and filed 1 intellectual property.

Associate Professor
Ph.D. (Green Technology)

Dr. Salman Raza Naqvi (Tamgha-e-Imtiaz) has received various awards including NUST Top Performer Award for the Highest Citations (Scopus) + Publications in Q1 category, Best Researcher (SCME) Award for 2022 and Best Innovator(SCME) Award for 2022. Dr. Salman, Associate Professor has specialized in Biomass with around 13 research projects worth over 80 million PKR. Dr. Salman has published around 200 research articles & conference papers having a citation count exceeding 6500 and filed 2 patents. Dr Salman is actively involved in industry-academia linkage and collaborated with Tufail Chemical Lab.

Associate Professor

Ph.D. (Membrane Sciences, Separations)

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Dr. Sarah Farrukh has worked for more than six years in academia and research, with experience in some of the leading technologies key to the currently most mature renewable and clean energy and CO2 capture. More recently, her focus is on bringing significant new and evolving technologies to an advanced level regarding renewable energy, i.e., hydrogen storage, CO2 capture. She has authored/co-authored 65 indexed publications and 8 book chapters. Her work has been cited 700 times with an h-index of 16 and an i10-index of 24. Furthermore, she has submitted 3 national patents and published one book entitled “Nanotechnology and Generation of Sustainable Hydrogen”.  She has received “2019 Best Researcher Award and 2018 Best Teacher Award”.

Associate Professor
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering
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Dr. Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi is working as Associate Professor (2018) and Head of Research of School of Chemical and Materials Engineering (SCME) Since March 2021. He has also served as Head of Chemical Department from March 2018 to 2021. He has obtained his MS and PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Groningen, the Netherlands in 2013. Later in 2015, he has done Post Doctorate from The Norwegian University of Science and Technology is a public university in Norway.

Dr. Niazi research work is focused on application of biopolymers in food packaging, membranes, hydrogels, and fertilizer. He is also leading a research group named “Product Technology” at SCME. Dr. Niazi is passionate about his research work and published more than 100 Research Articles in reputable journals with an h-index of 30 and an i10-index of 68. Furthermore, two national patents are also submitted. He is also working as PI of three national grants i.e., Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan Science Foundation and Agricultural Linkages Program (ALP), one international grant i.e., Erasmus Global Mobility, and two industrial grants i.e., Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited and gourmet foods limited. He is teaching core Chemical Engineering courses like SHMT, Separation processes in chemical engineering and Product Technology. He has received “2015 Best Teacher Award of SCME” and “2020 Best Researcher Award of SCME”.

Associate Professor

Ph.D. Materials and Surface Engineering

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Dr. Aftab Akram completed his Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore and was awarded with NUST fellowship for MS leading to PhD in Materials and Surface Engineering from SCME. He was awarded Presidential Gold Medal in 7th postgraduate convocation of NUST for his best performance in academics. He joined the Department of Materials Engineering at SCME NUST in May 2017 as Assistant Professor. Dr. Aftab have published more than 55 research articles so far with a cumulative impact factor of above 250. He has above 1000 citations with an H-index of 19 & and i-10 index of 32 to his credit. He has been granted 13 million PKR research funding under HEC NRPU scheme as Pl on “Fabrication Characterization and Testing of Nanostructured Devices for Efficient Energy Storage and Conversion” and has won four other funded projects from HEC & NESCOM as PI as well. He has also won funding of about 50 million PKR as Co-PI from HEC & PSF different projects. Dr. Aftab is an active member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) & The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) USA.  Due to his outstanding research and teaching performance, he was awarded ‘SCME best researcher award’ in 2018-19, ‘performance-based increments’ in 2020 & 2021 and appreciation certificate for performance in research at NUST from 2019 to 2021.

Associate Professor

Ph.D. Material Science

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Professor

Ph.D. Polymer Science and Technology

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rof. Dr. Nasir Ahmad is served as In charge of Polymers Labs at School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. He earned his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Technology from the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Later he did his postdoctoral research at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. In addition, he also served in industry with various roles to carry out R& D projects. He has been involved in studies, which include syntheses of novel stimuli-responsive switchable polymers, fabrication of tunable self-assembled thin films, and branching in radical/controlled radical polymerizations. Current research is multidisciplinary, and projects involve radical polymerization, self-healing coatings, antifouling functional polymers, development of magnetic colloids, self-assembled thin film; stimuli-responsive polymers, coatings for oil, gas and marine, and polymer membranes for water treatment and purifications.

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Material Science and Technology

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I have around 10 years of experience working in the field of Polymer Materials Science and Engineering. Since 2017, I am working in the field of asphalt for investigating the physico-chemical properties. I hold Bachelors in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Masters in Polymer Technology and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Technology. I utilized various state of the art techniques like Rheometer, DMTA, TMDSC, TGA, UTM, SEM, AFM, PLM, and SAXS/WAXD to explore the structure-properties relationships of the hybrid polymeric system and contributed to publishing more than 40 ISI peer-reviewed articles. I used various types of nanofillers such as graphene, CNTs, nanoclays, hydroxyapatite nanoparticles, spinel ferrite nanoparticles for embedding in polymer matrices to obtain synergistic properties.

I strive for continuous professional development by keeping myself abreast with the field of research and development. I am interested to interact and link with the people working in the similar field of research either in academia and/or industry for contributing and applying the knowledge and skills acquired over the period.

Professor

Ph.D. Physics

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Associate Professor

Ph.D. Chemical and Analytical Technologies

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Dr. Amir Habib is a senior researcher and academician at the university of Hafar al Batin. I completed my Ph.D. from the Techincal University of Vienna, Austria, in 2008. As an academician, I have taught and mentored physics, nanoscience & technology students. As a researcher, my primary expertise is synthesizing nanoparticles via wet routes and characterizing and applying metal oxide nanoparticles. I supervised Ph.D. and MS students in hybrid solar cell fabrication and nano-composites development for electrical properties. The other areas include the application of nanomaterials in biomaterials and exploiting their photocatalytic properties. Projects pursued and completed include; a) Hydrothermal Synthesis and Dielectric properties of BaTiO3 Polymer nanocomposites, b) Fabrication of Organic Solar Cells for improved efficiency, c) Fabrication of inexpensive, stable perovskite solar cells, d) Self-cleaning coatings and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants.