The Council Hall at the Admin Block of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) was abuzz with excitement on 4th May, 2023 as Professor Dr. Zahid Hussain delivered a guest lecture on “Unraveling Advanced Materials Properties Using State-of-the-Art Soft X-ray Spectroscopic Techniques.” The lecture was jointly organized by the Center for Advanced Electronic and Photonic Engineering (CAEPE), Physics Department and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences (CIRBS) at IIUI.
The lecture was attended by faculty members, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students from various departments. Dr. Zahid Hussain shared his extensive knowledge and research experience in the field of soft x-ray spectroscopy. Dr. Zahid Hussain is currently retired but formerly was Division Deputy for Scientific Support Group in the Advanced Light Source Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), USA. Currently, he is affiliated with Material Science Division, LBNL, holds adjunct professor positions with Stanford University (USA) and the Technical University of Shanghai, China. He is one of the world-leading experts in soft x-ray synchrotron radiation instrumentations and its applications and received numerous awards including 2010 R&D 100, 2004 & 2013 Klaus Halbach Awards for Innovative Instrumentations, 2019 American Physical Society Keithly award for Advances in Measurement Science. He is listed in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019 highly cited/most influential scientific minds by Thomson Reuters.
Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed, Vice President (Research & Enterprise), who also happened to be the guest scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, USA and collaborator of the distinguished speaker introduced the topic and the speaker. Dr. Zahid Hussain’s talk focused on the use of soft x-ray spectroscopic techniques to study the electronic and magnetic properties of advanced materials. He presented several examples of how these techniques have been used to unravel the properties of complex materials such as high-temperature superconductors, topological insulators, and multiferroics, batteries, fuel cells and next generation technologies. The lecture was followed by an engaging question-and-answer session, during which the audience had the opportunity to ask Dr. Zahid Hussain about his research and its potential applications. The session was lively and informative, with many insightful questions and comments from the audience.
Speaking after the lecture, Dr. Zahid Hussain expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome he received at IIUI. “It was a pleasure to speak to such an engaged and knowledgeable audience,” he said. “I am impressed by the level of research being conducted at IIUI, and I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues here in the future.” Dr. Gul Hassan from CAEPE, who was the convener of the event committee thanked the worthy speaker and the attendees.
Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, the famous semiconductor physicist and Professor Emeritus at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad also attended the event. Both Prof. Zafar and Prof. Shuja presented the shield to the distinguished speaker on this occasion. Dr. Zahid, later, visited the Centre for Advanced Electronics & Photovoltaic Engineering (CAEPE) and interacted with the researchers working on a variety of scientific problems in the broader areas of energy, electronics and optoelectronics.