People
These achievements are a result of teamwork, emphasizing a collaborative approach in advancing knowledge and innovation. Each contributor has played a crucial role in shaping the outcomes we proudly present.
Professor Samir Iqbal
Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Washington, DC, USA
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, USA
Education:
Ph.D., Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA (2007)
B.E., N.E.D. University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan (1996)
Experience
I have had the privilege of holding significant roles in academia, nonprofits, military and program leadership across diverse institutions. Since 2021, I am serving as the Program Director for the America's Seed Fund Program, and Partnerships for Innovation Program within the TIP Directorate, and the cross-directorate Mid-Career Advancement Program at the NSF. I am involved with a broad spectrum of scientific programs and initiatives to harness the nation's vast and diverse talent pool in advancing critical and emerging technologies that address pressing societal and economic challenges and accelerate the translation of research results from lab to market and society. I interact with potential principal investigators, form and facilitate merit review panels, and recommend funding decisions across the entire breadth of U.S. science, engineering, and education disciplines.
In my academic journey, I have held the position of Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) in Edinburg, TX, since 2017. I was also the chair of the Department during this period.
My academic journey began as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Electrical Engineering, and Bioengineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UT-Arlington), and then as an Associate Professor. During this time, I also directed the Bioengineering Doctoral Fellowships Program and chaired/co-chaired a number of national/international events and conferences. We spun out two start-ups from our work as well.
Prior to my roles at UT-Arlington, I served as a Post-Doc and Instructor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Leadership
TIP Lead and Member of NSF EPSCoR Science and Engineering Committee (ESEG), Washington, DC, USA.
Chair, Innovation Tank and Competition at 2023 National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Chair, Innovation Tank Workshop and Competition at 2022 NOBCChE Annual Conference, Orlando, Florida, USA.
Chair, Bioengineering Subgroup, The Biophysical Society, USA.
Program Director, Sustainable Energy and Water Resource Management Program, UTRGV, Edinburg, Texas, USA.
General Chair, 3rd US International Conference on Surfaces, Coatings and Nanostructured Materials (NANOSMAT-USA 2016), Arlington, Texas, USA.
Member Concept and Design Team, 200,000 sq ft Science and Engineering Innovation and Research Building at UT-Arlington, Texas, USA.
General Co-Chair, Third Conference on Nanotechnology for Biological and Biomedical Applications (Nano-Bio-Med 2015), the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), Mumbai, India.
Chair, Publicity Committee, IEEE-EMBS Technical Committee on BioMEMS, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA.
General Co-Chair and Member Organizing Committee, 2nd US International Conference on Surfaces, Coatings and Nanostructured Materials (NANOSMAT-USA 2014), Houston, Texas, USA.
Secretary, Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Honor Society, UT-Arlington Chapter, USA.
General Co-Chair, Second Conference on Nanotechnology for Biological and Biomedical Applications (Nano-Bio-Med 2013), The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy.
Director, US Department of Education, Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Doctoral Fellowships Program, UT-Arlington, TX, USA.
Co-Chair, “Nanoengineering and Nanomputing Applications for Pervasive Health Environments of the Future Workshop” at the 2nd International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, Corfu, Greece.
Co-Founder and General Co-Chair of Conference on Nanotechnology for Biological and Biomedical Applications (Nano-Bio-Med), the Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy.
Honors / Distinctions
2023 - Excellence Award, for promotion and practice of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility activities, TIP Directorate, NSF.
2018, 2019 - Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Nanotechnology Council.
2016 – 2018 - Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE — Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBS).
2017 - Education Award, Tarrant County Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Arlington, Texas.
2017 – 2018 - Presidential Research Fellow, “Health and the Human Condition” Initiative, UT-Arlington, $20,000 Prize.
2017 - Fellow, The NANOSMAT Society, UK.
2017 - Excellence in Doctoral Student Mentoring Award, UT-Arlington, Finalist.
2016 - Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.
2016 - Excellence in Research Award, UT-Arlington College of Engineering. $5,000 Prize.
2015 - Best Research Advisor Award, Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Honor Society, UT-Arlington.
2015 - Doctoral Student Mentoring Award, UT-Arlington, Finalist.
2014 - Outstanding ACES Mentor Award, Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Honor Society, UT-Arlington.
2014 - President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, Electrical Engineering Nominee, UT-Arlington.
2013 - Eminent Engineer, Tau Beta Pi, National Engineering Honor Society.
2013 - Best Academic Advisor 2012-13, Honorable Mention, UT-Arlington.
2013 - President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Engineering Nominee, UT-Arlington.
2011 - Recognized Professor, Phi Kappa Phi, Arlington, Texas.
2009 - Best Poster Award at “From DNA-Inspired Physics to Physics-Inspired Biology" Conference, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy.
2009 - CAREER Award, National Science Foundation: "Nanoelectronic Microfluidic Biochip for Ultrasensitive Detection of Selective Protein Biomarkers," $468,000.
2003-2004 - Magoon Award for Excellence in Teaching (Cash Prize). College of Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
Fellowships
2018 - Scientific Human Resource Support Program, Fellowships for Visiting Scientists and Scientists on Sabbatical Leave, Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey.
2018 - Fellowship, Micro Nano Technology education (MNTe) Special Interest Group (SIG) and High Impact Technology Exchange Conference (HI-TEC), Miami, FL, USA.
2017 - Fellowship, Micro Nano Technology (MNT) Special Interest Group (SIG) and High Impact Technology Exchange Conference (HI-TEC), Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
2015 - Faculty Fellow, US Air Force Research Labs, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
2013 - Fellowship, European Summit for Clinical Nanomedicine, Basel, Switzerland.
2013 - Fellowship, NSF Summer Institute: The Materials Genome: Current Practice and Future Promise, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
2012 - 2013 - Fellowships, NSF National Center for Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK) Network, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA.
2012 - Fellowship, Materiomics – Merging Biology and Engineering in Multiscale Structures and Materials, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
2011 - Fellowship, NSF Summer Institute: Cancer Nanotechnology: Analysis, Imaging and Treatment over Multiple Scales, Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, Texas, USA.
2009 - Fellowship, Symposium on Undergraduate Nano-Education: Addressing the Challenges of Nanoscale Science & Engineering Education, SUNY-Albany, New York, USA.
2008 - Faculty Fellowship, Summer Institute on Nanomechanics, Nanomaterials and Micro/ Nanomanufacturing, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
2008 - Faculty Fellowship, NCLT Best Practices in Nano-Education, Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, Alabama, USA.
Student Awards
2019 - A. H Fernandez, M. I. Flores, D. Duron and C. Garcia, Distinguished Scholar Award, Applied Science Oral Presentation, Engaged Scholar Symposium (ES2), UTRGV.
2018 - Mason Garza: Best Poster Award, 4th US International Conference on Surfaces, Coatings and Nanostructured Materials (4th NANOSMAT-USA 2018), South Padre Island, TX, USA.
2016 - Waqas Ali: The Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, UT-Arlington.
2016 - M. Usman Raza: Outstanding Electrical Engineering GTA Award, UT-Arlington.
2016 - Adeel Sajid, Samir Nathu, and Mohammad R. Hasan: Second Prize in Third Annual E-Week Student Challenge, $300 Cash Prize, UT-Arlington.
2015 - Ms. Nuzhat Mansur: Honorable Mention, Graduate Session Oral Presentations, ACES Symposium.
2015 - Muhymin Islam: Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Scholarship.
2015 - Mohammad Raziul Hasan: Kelcy Warren Engineering Scholarship.
2015 - Maryam Alam and Frank Villareal: The Grand Prize in “Elevator Pitch” Competition.
2015 - Md. Motasim Bellah: The Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, UT-Arlington.
2014 - Waqas Ali: Outstanding Electrical Engineering GTA Award, UT-Arlington.
2014 - M. Raziul Hasan: Outstanding Mentor Award, UT-Arlington.
2014 - M. Arif Iftakher Mahmood: The Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, UT-Arlington.
2013 - Azhar Ilyas: The Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, UT-Arlington.
2013 - Azhar Ilyas: The inaugural N. M. Stelmakh Outstanding Student Research Award, UT-Arlington.
2013 - Chaudhry M. Amir Arafat: The Excellent Paper Award, 2013 ASEE Gulf Southwest Annual Regional Conference: Engineering Education Without Borders, Arlington, TX.
2013 - M. A. I. Mahmood: Best Paper Award, 2013 Sigma Xi Southwest Regional Research Conference, Dallas, TX.
2012 - M. A. I. Mahmood: Vice Provost's Award for Excellence in Abstract Writing, Honorable Mention at the Annual Celebration of Excellence by Students (ACES) symposium, , UT-Arlington.
2012 - Waseem Asghar: Best NanoFab Graduate Student Award 2012, UT-Arlington.
2012 - M. A. I. Mahmood: NSF Travel Award to attend PETRA 2012 Conference, Crete, Greece.
2012 - Raza Khan: Undergraduate Research Opportunity Award (UROP), UT-Arlington.
2012 - C. M. Amir Arafat: Electrical Engineering Avicenna Scholarship, UT-Arlington.
2011-12 - C. M. Amir Arafat: Undergraduate Scholars Program Fellowship, UT-Arlington.
2011-12 - Umair J. M. Khan, M. A. I. Mahmood, Azhar Ilyas and C. M. Amir Arafat: I Engage Mentoring Program Fellowships, UT-Arlington.
2011 - Azhar Ilyas: Charles Desoer LiSSA Award, 5th IEEE-NIH LIfe Science Systems and Applications Workshop 2011 (LiSSA 2011), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
2010 - Yuan Wan: Graduate School Dean Fellowship 2010, UT-Arlington.
2009 - P. P. Ramachandaran: Best Paper Award, IEEE-NIH LIfe Science Systems and Applications Workshop 2009 (LiSSA'09), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.