By Neil Nachbar

In the five years that Akram Abbasi was a doctoral student in the chemical engineering program at the University of Rhode Island, her research on nanomaterials for different applications led to published articles in highly-rated professional journals and presentations at national meetings.

Abbasi’s outstanding work also earned her the 2020 Excellence in Doctoral Research Award from the URI Graduate School, and the respect of her professors.

“I’m extremely honored to receive this award,” said Abbasi. “I think it’s the perfect ending to my five-year journey at URI.”

During Abbasi’s doctoral studies, her research on nanomaterials covered such applications as biomedicine, environmental remediation, composite materials and sensing.

“I chose to work on nanoscale materials because of their fascinating physical, chemical and biological properties, which are considerably different from those of their macro-scale counterparts, which have led to the considerable growth of nanotechnology over the last decade,” said Abbasi.

The properties of nanomaterials were described in Abbasi’s dissertation, titled, “Nanomaterials for Sensing, Heating and Applications in Composites and Emulsion Biofouling.”

Abbasi’s co-advisors at URI, Professor Geoffrey Bothun and Distinguished Engineering Professor Arijit Bose, recommended her for the graduate school award.

“I was delighted to give Akram my highest recommendation for the doctoral research award,” said Bose. “She’s been published in some of the leading journals in our field and made eight presentations of her doctoral work at national meetings.” 

Since August 2019, Abbasi has conducted postdoctoral research at Brown University in the Shukla Laboratory for Designer Biomaterials. She has been designing biomaterials for maintaining the multi-potency and self-renewal ability of stem cells during in vitro expansion.

“The knowledge and skills that I gained while conducting research toward my Ph.D. at URI prepared me to be an independent researcher,” stated Abbasi. “My background in materials has helped me significantly when studying cell-biomaterial interactions.”

Abbasi will complete her postdoctoral research at Brown in August of 2021.