Farid Akhtar

My Vision

My vision for materials science is that it should not stop at the point of scientific presentations and publications. The most meaningful research in engineering materials earns its value by being derisked, scaled, and deployed, whether that means a porous ceramic that actually upgrades biogas at industrial volumes, or a coating that survives a real high-temperature environment. I try to run my research group on that same principle: fundamental materials understanding and industrial translation are not separate stages done by separate people, but one continuous line of work.

In education, I want the researchers I train to leave with both deep scientific, technical grounding and the practical instincts to take an idea from research to a working prototype. And the challange is that materials science sits at the intersection of chemistry, engineering, and increasingly sustainability and energy policy, therefore, I think the next generation of materials researchers needs to be fluent in moving across those boundaries, not specialized within just one of them

About me

I am Professor of Engineering Materials in the Division of Materials Science at Luleå University of Technology (LTU). I have PhD in Materials Science from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (2007) and carried out postdoctoral research at Stockholm University before joining LTU in 2014.

My research addresses the synthesis and processing of porous materials for gas separation and storage, and the design of metallic, intermetallic, and ceramic materials including high-entropy alloys and ceramics, and materials for extreme environemnts and other demanding applications. My research bridges fundamental materials science and characterization with derisking and scale-up of technologies toward industrial application.

I was listed on the Stanford/Elsevier "World's Top 2% Scientists" ranking and was awarded the Nordea Science Prize in 2022. I have authored more than 200 publications, in reputables journals with citation over 9000 and an h-index of 47, and has been granted five patents.

I have led or co-led a sustained portfolio of competitively awarded research funding, including grants from the Swedish Research Council (VR), Formas, and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, and partner and coordinator of the EU-funded projects including a EIC PathFinder project.

I serve as Associate Editor of the *Journal of the Asian Ceramic Society*, Guest editing in Open Ceramics and have serve on the editorial boards of Scientific Reports and the International Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials, and contribute in reviewing regularly for journals and funding bodies around the world.

I have supervised more than 15 PhD students and 15 postdoctoral researchers, chaired international conferences including the 14th Conference on Ceramic Processing Science (2019) and the 1st Symposium on CO2 Capture, Storage & Utilization (2021), and has been Plenary, keynote and invited seminar speaker at over 40 international conferences and have given talks to Universities around the world.

Beyond the university, I have co-founded start-up companies. The entrepreneurial work reflects my broader focus on derisking laboratory-scale materials science into deployable, commercially viable technology.

Available Positions:

My group actively welcomes prospective PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and master's thesis students, with funded positions regularly advertised. I have hosted international academic exchange visits from different universities around the world.

• I have postdoctoral scholarship opportunities available. Send you CV to me if you are motivated and have suitable background.
• I have opportunities available for master students to carry out master thesis and if some one looking for lab experience, drop and email with your interests. processing and characterization of porous ceramics. It will be performed in together with our industrial partners. We offer financial support as well. Send you CV to me if you are motivated and have suitable background.

Current Group Members/Students:

Right now, there are 4 PhD students (Janna Attari, Tadesse Abebaw Mengistie, Alejandra Rossio Quispe Medina, Xiaoxiong Fan) and 4 Postdoctoral fellows (Marina Ciurans I Oset, Nasir Shezad, Urooj Kamran, Libania Velarde Arnez) in my research group. The following postdoctoral fellows and PhD students were part of my research group.

Postdoctoral Fellows:

• Dr. Avik De
• Dr. Praveen Wilson
• Dr. Himanshu Singh Maurya
• Dr. Heena Dhavan
• Dr. Saddam Hussain
• Dr Dariusz Nikjoo
• Dr. Kamran Saeidi
• Dr. Akeem Akinwekomi
• Dr. Sadegh Nabavi
• Dr. Qiuwei Xing
• Dr. Hanbin He
• Dr. Saleh Hooshmand
• Dr. Fangyuan Gai
• Dr. Dilshod Shakarova

PhD Students Graduated:

• Dr. Paul Gruber
• Dr. Zhejian Cao
• Dr. Ana-Carolina Feltrin
• Dr. Marina Cirans I Oset
• Dr. Nasir Shezad
• Dr. Libania Velarde Arnez
• Dr. Zeyu Li
• Dr Hanzhu Zhang
• Dr. Sajid Ali
• Dr. Kritika Narang
• Dr. Sadegh Nabavi
• Miss Nadja Maria Vinkel
• Dr. Neda Keshavarzi
• Dr. Arto Ojuva

Master Students:

• Miss Freja Hansson, Detection of Contaminants in Water Using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, 2021.
• Mr. Romain Couval, Scale up of a Test Fluid for testing the Fuel System Robustness against Soft Particles in Biodiesels, 2021.
• Arailym Umirova, Porous Ceramics for Thermal insulation, 2021
• From 2018-2020, I supervised over 20 master thesis and project students.
• Vivek Kumar, Microporous organic polymers for gas storage, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Valeri Petkov, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Oriol Artola Pla, Nanolaminated chemeleon coatings by ALD, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Matthieu Billaud, Processing, microstructure and properties of TiAL intermetallic, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Marina Ciurans Oset, Processing and characterization of porous ceramics developed using expandable polymer spheres. 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Julia Nilsson, Design and fabrication of insulation materials with ultra-low thermal conductivity, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Daniel Costas, Characterization of high entropy alloys, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Catherine Le, Performance Evaluation of Ion-exchanged zeolite adsorbents in swing adsorption for carbon dioxide separation, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Amara Dil, Synthesis of porous materials for methane gas storage, 30hp, 2017, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Alexe Rene, Pulsed current processing of high temperature and high entropy intermetallic alloys. 30hp, 2016, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Virginie Perrot, Structuring of adsorbents for biogas upgrading. 30hp, 2016, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Romain Saintlan, Recycling of MoSi2 heating element to process MoO3 based photocatalytic materials. 30hp, 2016, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Kristina Fodor, 30hp, Optimization of adsorbents for biogas upgrading and storage. 2016, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed.
• Walid Haziz, Processing, Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Porous Ceramics using Expandable Polymer Spheres as Template. 2015, Luleå University of Technology. Status: Completed. The thesis was performed in collaboration with AKZO-NOBEL AB.
• Marcus Bauer, Principal Supervisor, 2013, Freeze-casting of zeolite A for gas separation. Master Thesis 30hp. Stockholm University. Status: Completed
• Sajid Ahmed, Principal Supervisor 2012, Spark plasma sintering of gradient silicalite-1 supports for all-zeolite membranes. Master Thesis 30hp. Stockholm University. Status: Completed.
• Damian Hodel, Principal Supervisor, 2011, Porosity characterization of Gradient silicalite-1 supports for all-zeolite membranes by image analysis. Master Thesis 30hp. Stockholm University. Status: Completed.
• Neda Keshavarzi, Principal Supervisor, 2010-2011, Highly porous hierarchically porous zeolite monoliths for CO2 capture. Master Thesis 45hp. Stockholm University. Status: Completed.
• Yaser Rehman, Principal Supervisor, 2009, Pressureless consolidation of hierarchically porous diatomite Monoliths, Master Thesis. University of Engineering and Technology Lahore. Status: Completed.
• Muhammad Adil, Principal Supervisor, 2009, Sintering, microstructure and mechanical properties of TiC reinforced steel matrix composites, Master thesis, Principal. University of Engineering and Technology Lahore. Status: Completed.

Teaching:

I am examiner of the following courses offered at Engineering Materials

• T7003T, Materials Characterization, 7.5 ECTS, http://www.ltu.se/edu/course/T70/T7003T/T7003T-Materialtekniska-Analysmetoder-1.69517?kursView=kursplan
• T7008T, Phase Transformations, 7.5 ECTS, http://www.ltu.se/edu/course/T70/T7008T/T7008T-Fasomvandlingar-1.69534

Ongoing Projects:

are funded by VR, Energy Agency, EU, Swedish Foundation for Strategic research funding 6 PhD projects and 3 postdoctoral fellows.

Completed Projects:

Porous structured, biobased and recyclable materials for construction applications. (2023-2025) Funded by Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability

Hållbar Isolering (2020-2022), Sustainable insulation material for post insulation of buildings. Funded by VINNOVA.

Plasma Atomized WC (2019-2023),Plasma Atomized Tungsten Carbide for Wear Resistant Coatings, Funded by Swedish Foundation of Strategic Research.

Nano Biogas (2019-2022), Nanoscale hierarchically porous carriers for advanced biomethane. Funded by Science Council VR.

NANOCONTROL (2017-2021), Nanoscale design of Ammonia Carriers for Air Pollution Control Funded by Formas.

HighGradeGas (2016-2020) - Highly Structured materials for upgraded biogas and storage, Funded by Innovation Fund Denmark. http://energiforskning.dk/en/node/8620

TMTEST (2016-2020)- Thermomechanical and Tribology Infrastructure funded by Swedish Foundation of Strategic Research. http://stratresearch.se/en/research/ongoing-research/research-infrastructure-fellows-2014/project/7194/
and
http://www.paneuropeannetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ST21-Dept-ESM_21275-pro.pdf

Functional Intermetallics (2016-2018)- Functional Intermetallic Materials for Energy Applications from Novel Processing Routes. A bilateral project between China University of Mining and Technlogy China and Luleå University of Technology Sweden funded by STINT Sweden and NSFC China.

Links:

• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Farid_Akhtar
• https://scholar.google.se/citations?user=jkw8cDsAAAAJ&hl=en
• http://www.paneuropeannetworks.com/pen-partners/thermo-mechanical-and-tribology-infrastructure-tmtest/

News:

Follow me on linkedin for more news

• https://www.ltu.se/research/subjects/Materialteknik/Nyheter-och-aktuellt/10-000-C-pa-en-sekund-1.162918
• http://www.ltu.se/research/subjects/Materialteknik/Nyheter-och-aktuellt/Materialforskare-far-15-miljoner-fran-SSF-1.143044