HOD-Professor

Professor Ahmed undergraduate & postgraduate education took place in the UK where he obtained his B.Sc. & Ph.D. degrees from Durham University. He served as Professor of Physics at Khartoum, Qatar & Kuwait universities. He also held the positions of Visiting Scientist at CERN, Senior Inter-University Council fellow at Imperial College London as well as Visiting Professor at Carleton & Cornell universities. He served as Chairman of Physics Departments at Khartoum & Kuwait universities. Furthermore, he served as Vice President Academic Affairs at Kuwait University where he introduced & supervised, for the first time, academic evaluation of university programs by external agencies &/or teams of visiting professors. His research interests focus on theoretical high energy physics & quantum gravity.

Assistant Professor

Dr. Sharafudeen is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at KCST. He completed his Ph.D. in the department of Physics at the National Institute of Technology Calicut, India in 2011 and has conducted postdoctoral research at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, China (2012 to 2013) and at the University of Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo, Brazil (2014 to 2015). He was also a visiting researcher at Leiden Institute of Physics (LION), University of Leiden, the Netherlands. His research interests are in the field of optics and photonics. His research work spans the topics such as; femtosecond laser induced phenomena, luminescence spectroscopy, glass science, fiber lasers, precision lasers etc. He published around 40 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals/conferences and collaborates with many international universities/institutes for his research works.

TEACHING AREAS

• Undergraduate Physics (PH101- Physics 1, PH102- Physics 2, PH103-Solid state physics)

RESEARCH AREAS

• Optics & Photonics

RECENT PUBLICATIONS (SINCE 2015)

• “Highly Thermotolerant Metal Halide Perovskite Solids”, Huiwang Lian, Yang Li, Kaniyarakkal Sharafudeen, Weiren Zhao, Gopi R. Krishnan, Shaoan Zhang, Jianrong Qiu, Kai Huang, and Gang Han, Advanced Mater., vol 32, issue 28, 2002495, 2020.
• Sharafudeen Kaniyarakkal N. V., Siji Narendran N. K., Shiju E., Vijayakumar S., Chandrasekharan K., Intensity favored switching of nonlinear optical absorption mechanism in silver nanoparticles under nanosecond pulsed laser excitation, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 11060, 110601H, 2019.
• J De Martin Júnior, S K N Valappil, S T Müller, P W Courteille ,V S Bagnato, D V Magalhães, Development of an ultrastable laser at 1550 nm , IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 975,012069, 2018.
• P. Sudheesh, Mallikharjuna Rao, K. N. Sharafudeen, K. Chandrasekharan, “The role of imine derivatives in enhancing the third order optical nonlinearity in PMMA films for photonic applications”, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 19, no. 3 - 4, 246 – 250, 2017.
• Dezhi Tan, Kaniyarakkal N. Sharafudeen, Yuanzheng Yue, Jianrong Qiu, Femtosecond laser induced phenomena in transparent solid materials: Fundamentals and applications, Progress in Materials Science, 76,154-228, 2016.
• Xixi Qin, Yang Li, Ruili Zhang, Jinjun Ren, Mindaugas Gecevicius, Yiling Wu, Kaniyarakkal Sharafudeen, Guoping Dong, Shifeng Zhou, Zhijun Ma, Jianrong Qiu, Hybrid coordination-network-engineering for bridging cascaded channels to activate long persistent phosphorescence in the second biological window, Scientific Reports, 6 20275,1-9, 2016.

Assistant Professor

Dr Houcine Bouzid completed his PhD in experimental nanophysics in 2021 from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in Korea. Prior to that he worked as a researcher in the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Korea (KIST) from 2008 to 2010, and as a lecturer and researcher at Najran University in Saudi Arabia (2011 to 2014). After PhD he worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at the IBS Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics (CINAP) in Korea. He joined KCST as an assistant professor of physics in 2023.

Lecturer

Mr. Hamza holds BA in mathematics with a physics minor from the University of Montana and MS in general engineering from Montana technological University. After receiving his master’s degree, he completed many advanced courses in applied engineering mechanics and mathematics from different universities in USA. He has been a tutor, a teaching assistant and then an instructor and researcher at Montana technological University, a teaching assistant at Northern Illinois university and an instructor at American international university, during which he taught physics and math courses, and laboratory courses in both engineering and physics.

Lecturer

Dr. Lama Saadi graduated from Aix-Marseille University, France with a doctorate in Micro Electronics. During her PhD she was a lecturer at the same university. Her research in Micro Nanoelectronics was based on DFT “ab initio calculations” methods to study the behavior of gas molecules on the surface of the semiconductor using a pseudopotential code. Later, she joined the Energy Atomic Commission “CEA” in Saclay, France, as a research engineer. Her research at the nuclear center focused on the study of dislocations in centered cubic metals. She has published numerous research articles in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. She joined KCST as a Lecturer of physics in 2023.

PUBLICATIONS

• 2014 L. Saadi, C. Lambert-Mauriat, V. Oison, H. Ouali R. Hayn, "Mechanisms of NOx sensing on WO3 surface: First principle calculation", Volume 293, 2014, Pages 76-79.
• 2012 C. Lambert-Mauriat, V. Oison, L. Saadi, K. Aguir, "Ab initio study of oxygen point defects on tungsten trioxide surface", Surface Science, Volume 606, 2012, Pages 40-45.
• 2011 V. Oison, L. Saadi, C. Lambert-Mauriat, R. Hayn, "Mechanism of CO and O3 sensing on WO3 surfaces: First principle study", Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 160, Issue 1, December 2011, Pages 505-510.

CONFERENCES

• June 2012 V. Oison, C. Lambert-Mauriat, L. Saadi, R. Hayn, K. Aguir, "Ab initio study of detection mechanism of toxic molecules on WO3 surface, INSA Rennes, France, june 2012.
• June 2011 C. Lambert-Mauriat, V. Oison, L. Saadi, R. Hayn, K. Aguir, "Electronic properties of oxygen vacancy and reactivity of O3 and CO molecules on WO3 ", CoDFT, Obernai, Strasbourg, France, June 2011.
• June 2011 L. Saadi, C. Lambert-Mauriat, V. Oison, R. Hayn, K. Aguir, "Oxidation-Reduction mechanisms of toxic molecules O3 and CO in gaz sensors based on WO3 ", CoDFT, Obernai, Strasbourg, France, June 2011.
• June 2011 L. Saadi, C. Lambert-Mauriat, V. Oison, R. Hayn, K. Aguir, "Oxidation-Reduction mechanisms of toxic molecules O3 and CO in gaz sensors based on WO3 ", Presqu’île de Giens, France, June 2011. (Won the Prize of Best research).
• June 2010 L. Saadi, C. Lambert-Mauriat, V. Oison, R. Hayn,"Study of the adsorption of O2 and O3 molecules on WO3 surface: ab initio calculations", Journées Nationales du Réseau Doctoral en Microélectronique, (JNRDM 10) Montpellier, France, June 2010.

Teaching Assistant

Ms. Remya R Nair joined in the Physics Department of KCST as a Teaching Assistant in March 2016. Prior to joining KCST, she worked as a Research Assistant in Laser Research Laboratory, Physics Department Kuwait University from April 2011 – February 2016. She also worked as a High School Teacher from June 2008 to December 2010 at Gayathri Vidya Mandir, Kerala, India. Her research interests are in the field of Nanotechnology and Photonics with ten publications in international journals, five conference papers and is an active member (as a Research Assistant) of Lab of Nanotechnology & Photonics in KCST. She has actively participated in 5 research projects, one from Kuwait University and 4 KCST-KFAS funded projects. Her expertise mainly includes the Femtosecond Laser system, TOPAS & Streak Camera operations, and several continuous and nanosecond laser operations. She has sound knowledge in the analytic instruments like SEM, AFM, Spectrophotometer and Keithley Sourcemeter with four point probe, both in sample analysis and data interpretation. Data analysis part of most of the experimental research works mainly concentrated on Labview, Matlab and Origin software.Ms. Remya R Nair received her Master's Degree in Physics from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam in 2008 and she received her Bachelor's Degree in Physics from Mahatma Gandhi University in 2006. She has completed 5 online courses each of duration 2-3 months as part of professional development activities, in different fields of Physics conducted by Prof. HC Verma Dept. of Physics, IIT Kanpur, India during the year 2016-2020.

Teaching Assistant

Lab Assistant

Dana Elnachar is a full time Lab Assistant of the Physics and Sciences Department at KCST. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil Structural Engineering from the Australian college of Kuwait class 2013, she have a diploma in quantity surveying and project management professional course from Kuwait Society of Engineers, in addition to the Air service Training center - Perth, Scotland approvals to teach their curriculum for Module 01- Mathematics and Module 02- Physics.

Lab Assistant

Eng. Deemah J Alansari is a Lab Assistant in the department of Physics at the Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST), who earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Kuwait University in 2023. She is interested in sustainability, green energy, and waste treatment projects. She has published a book named " Solar Energy to Fuels " as a graduation project that solved the carbon dioxide emissions in Kuwait power stations by producing thirty kinds of liquid fuels out of it. She also had her internship at Doha West Power Station for water production and treatment during her academic studies.