• Faculty and Staff

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Prof. Fadwa El Mellouhi is a Physics Visiting Professor; she received her Ph.D. in Physics focused on Computational Materials Science from the University of Montreal, Canada in 2006 followed by a strong and diversified university teaching and research experience. She also holds a diploma from the ICTP funded by the UNESCO-IAEA in 2001. After the completion of her Ph.D., she worked as postdoctoral researcher at Montreal University Canada, then in 2010 she joined Texas A&M University at Qatar where she worked until 2014 as Assistant Research Scientist. Since 2014 she is working as Senior Scientist at the Qatar Environment and energy Research Institute (QEERI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). Her current involvement in teaching Physics courses is reflection of her advocacy towards instructional excellence, outreach, and multiversity.

Dr. Fadwa  is  recognized for her excellent  scientific research in the area of accelerating the materials discovery for the decarbonization of the energy sector by using Computational Physics, Chemistry and Artificial Intelligence. Her research experiences resulted into numerous internationally impactful outcomes, strengthened by collaboration with experimental groups from US universities such as Texas A&M University and National Labs such as ORNL and PNNL, as well as local industrial partners on key economic, energetic and environmental grand challenges aiming at lowering greenhouse emissions. Her research brings a lot of visibility and covers, but not limited to, the design of materials for solar energy conversion, energy storage, carbon capture and conversion, hydrogen production and storage, smart coatings to fight COVID-19 contaminations as well as corrosion. Her research makes a significant contribution to the United Nations  Sustainable Development Goal 7 (UN SDG 7) to  ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.

Her research portfolio resulted in highly impactful and cited research outcomes leading to an h-index of 27 with more than 400 citations/year over the past 3 years. This includes 3 patents, 3 copyrighted software solutions and 80 scientific publications with more than 20 publications in journals of impact factor of 5 or higher such as Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Chemistry of Materials, Materials Horizons, Energy Technology.  Her work has been recognized and awarded in renowned and specialized venues such as the HOPV-17 conference at Lausanne, Switzerland in 2017. 

Having a solid experience with proposal writing, fund rising, reporting and grant management, she is currently involved and leading several research projects. Over the past 7 years she has attracted as principal applicant, under a very competitive environment, a total funding exceeding $5.5 Million in addition to establishing multinational and multidisciplinary collaborations supported by cash co-funding from industry such as the oil and gas giant Shell. As principal applicant, she is currently managing active projects with external funds totaling $2 Million that will run beyond 2024 aiming at training students, researchers and producing transformative solutions. In one of the latest achievements, she awarded a sub-project within a multinational/multidisciplinary cluster project (consortium) on the design of materials for the CO₂ direct air capture and conversion.

During the past few years, she  developed a strong ability to define the methodology for conducting and disseminating research and for evaluating research results. She is currently  teaching freshman  physics course and involved in educating younger age students via mentoring and judging. She developed a fine research advising skills that enabled her to train and supervise several postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, undergraduate summer students, high and middle school students. Her  research experiences in Italy, Canada and Qatar made her an advocate of inclusion and promotor of diversity. As female scientist in Computational Sciences, pursuing an independent research program since 2010, her career path serves as an inspiration of young females in Africa and the Middle East and motivate them to pursue a carrier in STEM.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, Montreal University, Canada, 2006
• Diploma in condensed Matter Physics, The Abdus Salam ICTP (International Centre for Theoretical Physics) Trieste, Italy, 2001
• Master of Science Computational Materials Science, Djillali Liabes University, Algeria, 2000
• Bachelor of Science, Djillali Liabes University, Algeria, 1995

Experience

Teaching and Advising

• Associate Professor (Visiting), Texas A&M University at Qatar, 2021-present
• Lecturer, Physics Department, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada, Fall 2008
• Lab teaching assistant, Physics Department, Université de Montreal, Montreal, Canada, Fall 2005, 2003, 2002, 2001

Professional Experience

• Senior Scientist, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, 2014-present
• Assistant research Scientist, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar, 2012-2014
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar, 2010-2012
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Université de Montréal, Canada, 2006-2010

Honors

Most valuable Research Photovoltaics Portfolio member, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, HBKU, 2017

Best poster presentation award, Organizing committee of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV 17) Lausanne, Switzerland, 2017

Scientist of the year Award, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, HBKU, 2015

Thanaa award, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, QF, 2015

Corbett Award for best junior scientist contribution, International committee  of the 24th edition of the International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors, Albuquerque, USA (http://icds-2015.org/corbett-prize/), 2007

Publications

• Adnan Ali, Fedwa El Mellouhi, Anirban Mitra, Brahim Aissa Research Progress of Plasmonic Nanostructure-Enhanced Photovoltaic Solar Cells, Nanomaterials 12(5), 788 (2022); https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12050788 (IF 5.346)
• El Tayeb Bentria, Salawu Omotayo Akande, Abitha Ramesh, Nicholas Laycock, Wouter Hamer, Normand Mousseau, Charlotte Becquart, Othmane Bouhali, Fedwa El-Mellouhi Insights on the effect of water content in carburizing gas mixtures on the metal dusting corrosion of iron,  Applied Surface Science 579 (30) 152138 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2021.152138 (IF 6.122)
• Salawu Omotayo Akande, El Tayeb Bentria, Abitha Ramesh, Nicholas Laycock, Othmane Bouhali, Fedwa El-Mellouhi Controlling surface chemistry of CO reactions on Fe surface by S blocking: A first-principles and microkinetic studies Applied Surface Science 571(1) 151216, (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2021.151216 (IF 6.122)
• Niveen M Khashab, Sara E Skrabalak, Lihi Adler-Abramovich, Stacey F Bent, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Eugenia Kumacheva, Delia J Milliron, Jennifer Neu, Elham Rezasoltani, Qing Shen, Sabrina Sicolo, Resilient Women and the Resiliency of Science, Chemistry of Materials 33, 17, 6585–6588 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c02648 (IF 9.811)
• Brahim Aissa, Adnan Ali, Fedwa El Mellouhi, Oxide and Organic–Inorganic Halide Perovskites with Plasmonics for Optoelectronic and Energy Applications: A Contributive Review Catalysts 11(9) 1057 (2021) https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11091057 (IF 4.146)
• Heesoo Park, El Tayeb Bentria, Sami Rtimi, Abdelilah Arredouani, Halima Bensmail, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Accelerating the Design of Photocatalytic Surfaces for Antimicrobial Application: Machine Learning Based on a Sparse Dataset, Catalysts 11(8), 1001 (2021) https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11081001 (IF 4.146)
• Syam Kumar, Heesoo Park, Akinlolu Akande, Stefano Sanvito, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, The rise of Nb-, Ta-, and Bi-based oxides/chalcogenides for photocatalytic applications, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 47(5), 3358 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.05.145 (IF 5.748)
• Narjiss Sallahi, Heesoo Park, Fedwa El Mellouhi, Mustapha Rachdi, Idir Ouassou, Samir Belhaouari, Abdelilah Arredouani, Halima Bensmail, Using Unstated Cases to Correct for COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak and Its Impact on Easing the Intervention for Qatar, Biology 10 (6), 463 (2021) https://doi.org/10.3390/biology10060463 (IF 3.796)
• MM Rahman, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Othmane Bouhali, Charlotte S Becquart, Normand Mousseau, Pressure effect on diffusion of carbon at the  symmetric tilt grain boundary of -iron, Physical Review Materials 5 (4), 043605 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.5.043605 (IF 3.337)
• Heesoo Park, Adnan Ali, Raghvendra Mall, Halima Bensmail, Stefano Sanvito, Fedwa El Mellouhi, Data-driven Enhancement of Cubic Phase Stability in Mixed-cation Perovskites, Machine Learning: Science and Technology 2 025030 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-2153/abdaf9 (IF NA)
• El Tayeb Bentria, Salawu Omotayo Akande, Charlotte S Becquart, Normand Mousseau, Othmane Bouhali, Fedwa El Mellouhi, Capturing the Iron Carburization Mechanisms from the Surface to Bulk The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 124, 52, 28569–28579 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b05342 (IF 4.189)
• Adnan Ali, Heesoo Park, Raghvendra Mall, Brahim Aïssa, Stefano Sanvito, Halima Bensmail, Abdelhak Belaidi, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Machine Learning Accelerated Recovery of the Cubic Structure in Mixed-Cation Perovskite Thin Films, Chemistry of Materials   32, 7, 2998–3006, (2020) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b05342 (IF 9.567)
• Salawu Omotayo Akande, El Tayeb Bentria, Othmane Bouhali and Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Searching for the rate determining step of the H2S reaction on Fe (110) surface, Applied Surface Science 532, 147470, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147470 (IF 6.122)
• Syam Kumar R, Akinlolu Akande, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Heesoo Park, and Stefano Sanvito, Theoretical investigation of the structural, elastic, electronic, and dielectric properties of alkali-metal-based bismuth ternary chalcogenides, Physical Review Materials 4 (7), (2020). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.075401 (IF 3.335)
• Rachid Essehli, Souhir Sabri, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Brahim Aïssa, Hamdi Ben Yahia, Tausif Altamash, Majeda Khraisheh, Abdulkarem Amhamed & Brahim El Bali, Single crystal structure, vibrational spectroscopy, gas sorption and antimicrobial properties of a new inorganic acidic diphosphates material (NH₄)₂Mg(H₂P₂O₇)₂2H₂O, Scientific Reports 10, 8909 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65718-2 (IF 4.011)
• Merid Legesse, Sergey N. Rashkeev, Hamed Saidaoui, Fedwa El Mellouhi, Said Ahzi, Fahhad H. Alharbi, Band gap tuning in aluminum doped two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride, Materials Chemistry and Physics, 250, 123176 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2020.123176 (IF 3.408)
• Heesoo Park, Raghvendra Mall, Adnan Ali, Stefano Sanvito, Halima Bensmail, Abdelhak Belaidi, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Importance of structural deformation features in the prediction of hybrid perovskite bandgaps, Computational Materials Science 184, 109858 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1021/ 1016/j.commatsci.2020.109858 (IF 2.292)
• Stefana Anais Colibaba, Sabine Körbel, Carlo Motta, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, and Stefano Sanvito, Interlayer dielectric function of a type-II van der Waals semiconductor: The HfS₂/PtS₂heterobilayer, Rev. Materials 3, 124002 (2019). (IF 3.335)
• Marie Buffiere, Dattatray S. Dhawale and Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Chalcogenide materials and derivatives for photovoltaic applications, Energy Technology 7, 11, 1900819 (2019) (IF 3.175)
• Heesoo Park, Ahmer A. B. Baloch, El Tayeb Bentria, Sergey N Rashkeev, Fahhad H Alharbi, and Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Oxychalcogenide-Perovskite Solar Cells: A Multiscale Design Approach, Energy Technology https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.201900766 (2019) (IF 3.175).
• Rachid Essehli, Hamdi Ben Yahia, Ruhul Amin, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Ilias Belharouak, Selective sodium-ion diffusion channels in Na_2-xFe₃(PO₄)₃ positive electrode for Na-ion batteries, Energy Storage (2019) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2019.07.040 (IF 3.940)   
• Heesoo Park, Raghvendra Mall, Fahhad H Alharbi, Stefano Sanvito, Nouar Tabet, Halima Bensmail, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Learn and Match Molecular Cations for Perovskites, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 123, 33, 7323-7334 (2019) (IF 2.641)   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.9b06208
• Aurab Chakrabarty, El Tayeb Bentria, Salawu Akande Omotayo, Othmane Bouhali, Normand Mousseau, Charlotte S Becquart, Fedwa El Mellouhi, Elucidating the role of extended surface defects at Fe surfaces on CO adsorption and dissociation, Applied surface Science 491, 792-798 (2019) (IF 5.115)  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.05.278
• Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Sergey N. Rashkeev, Asma Marzouk, Lara Kabalan, Abdelhak Belaidi, Belabbes Merzougui, Nouar Tabet and Fahhad H. Alharbi, Intrinsic stability enhancement and ionic migration reduction by fluorinated cations incorporated in hybrid lead halide perovskites, J. Chem. C, 7, 5299-5306 (2019) (IF 5.976) https://doi.org/10.1039/C8TC06308G
• Fedwa El-Mellouhi,  Mohamed E. Madjet,  Golibjon R. Berdiyorov,  El Tayeb Bentria,  Sergey N. Rashkeev,   Sabre Kais,   Akinlolu Akande, Carlo Motta,   Stefano Sanvito   and Fahhad H. Alharbi Enhancing the electronic dimensionality of hybrid organic–inorganic frameworks by hydrogen bonded molecular cations, Materials Horizons, 6, 1187-1196 (2019) (183)  https://doi.org/10.1039/c8mh01436a
• Heesoo Park, Raghvendra Mall, Fahhad H. Alharbi, Stefano Sanvito,  Nouar Tabet,  Halima Bensmail  and  Fedwa El-Mellouhi Exploring new approaches towards the formability of mixed-ion perovskites by DFT and machine learning Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics 21, 1078-1088  (2019) (IF 3.901) https://doi.org/10.1039/C8CP06528D
• Asma Marzouk, Victor Ponce, Laura Benitez, Fernando A. Soto, Kie Hankins, Jorge M. Seminario, Perla B. Balbuena and Fedwa El-Mellouhi Unveiling the First Nucleation and Growth Steps of Inorganic Solid Electrolyte Interphase Components Phys. Chem. C 122 (45), 25858-25868 (2018) (IF 4.536) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b08398
• Kapil Adhikari,  Aurab Chakrabarty, Othmane Bouhali, Normand Mousseau, Charlotte S. Becquart, and Fedwa El-Mellouhi Benchmarking the performance of plane-wave vs. localized orbital basis set methods in DFT modeling of metal surface: a case study for Fe-(110) Journal of Computational Science 29, 163-167 (2018) (IF 1.925) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocs.2018.10.008
• O Bouhali, IG Economou, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Some recent developments on computational science and engineering Editorial Journal of Computational Science 28, 357-359 (2018) (IF 1.925)   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocs.2018.08.006
• Fernando A. Soto, Asma Marzouk, Fedwa El-Mellouhi , and Perla B. Balbuena, Understanding Ionic Diffusion through SEI Components for Lithium-Ion and Sodium-Ion Batteries: Insights from First-Principles Calculations Mater., 2018, 30, 3315−3322  (2018) (IF 9.466)   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b00635
• Heesoo Park, Fahhad H. Alharbi, Stefano Sanvito, Nouar Tabet, and Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Searching for Photoactive Polymorphs of CsNbQ3 (Q = O, S, Se, Te) with Enhanced Optical Properties and Intrinsic Thermodynamic Stabilities Phys. Chem. C, 122 (16), pp 8814–8821 (2018) (IF 4.536) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b01787
• Oscar A. Restrepo, Normand Mousseau, Mickaël Trochet, Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Othmane Bouhali, and Charlotte S. Becquart Carbon diffusion paths and segregation at high-angle tilt grain boundaries in α-Fe studied by using a kinetic activation-relation technique Rev. B 97, 054309 (2018) (IF 3.075) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.054309
• Merid Legesse Belayneh, Heesoo Park,Fedwa El-Mellouhi, Sergey N Rashkeev, Sabre Kais, Fahhad H Alharbi: Improved photoactivity of pyroxene silicates by cation substitutions ChemPhysChem (2018) (IF 3.075) http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1002/cphc.201701155
• MI Hossain, FH Alharbi, F El-Mellouhi, N Tabet, Design optimization of solar cell with molybdenum sulfide as light absorber Journal of Photonics for Energy 8 (2), 025501 (2018) (IF 2.287) https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.8.025501
• Heesoo Park; Fahhad H Alharbi; Stefano Sanvito; Nouar Tabet;Fedwa El-Mellouhi: Elucidating the Impact of Chalcogen Content on the Photovoltaic Properties of Oxychalcogenide Perovkskites NaMO3-xQx (M=Nb,Ta, and Q=S,Se,Te) ChemPhysChem 19 (6), 703-714 (2017)  (IF 3.075)   http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201701206
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