Altaf Karim

Dr. Karim is a Condensed Matter Physicist and Materials Scientist who completed his Ph.D. degree from Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA. He also holds a professional certificate in Data Science and Big Data Analytics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. Dr. Karim has served the Department of Physics, COMSATS University Islamabad as HoD in 2016 and 2017. His research focus has been on developing and implementing cutting edge theoretical and experimental techniques, especially multiscale modeling and machine learning methods for materials discovery in areas of nanoscience & technology, heterogeneous catalysis, energy storage & conversion, and fuel cells and batteries for hybrid hydrogen powered-electric vehicles. Before joining the COMSATS University Islamabad, Dr. Karim worked at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, USA. In addition to that, Dr. Karim has had a tremendous opportunity of being one of the co-workers of Professor Gerhard Ertl, 2007 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, at the Fritz Haber Institute of Max Planck Society, Berlin, Germany. In this regard, Dr. Karim employed his theoretical & computational framework based on hybrid Density Functional Theory-Kinetic Monte Carlo methods to understand the underlying atomistic mechanisms of Professor Ertl's experiments on heterogeneous catalysis. This joint work eventually came out in the form of a landmark publication concluding that the above mentioned computational framework has now matured to the extent of making quantitative predictions about the properties of materials by bridging the gap between the atomistic simulations of such materials and their engineering applications. In that spirit the motto of Dr. Karim's research group is, "Let's use the magic of our state of the art computational framework to predict the properties of  new/conceived materials with high accuracy before you ever try to synthesize/make them unnecessarily burning your millions of dollars in laboratory.
Address: Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan