First Pakistani space scientist at the University of Cambridge wins 2020’s Young Leaders Award

Dr Yarjan Abdul Samad is a Senior Research Associate and a Teaching Fellow at Cambridge Graphene Centre, The Department of Engineering at The University of Cambridge. He is also the first Space Scientist hailing from Pakistan at the University of Cambridge where he has won several awards for his research work.

The latest addition to his awards is the Young Leaders Award for 2020 by the Young Professionals Society (YPS). Dr Yarjan is currently working on a research project on loop heat pipes for use in space applications and he was part of the European Space Agency zero-gravity flight campaign held in Nov-Dec 2017.

The society says, “For this year’s inaugural award, we received some excellent nominations from outstanding young candidates and it was an extremely difficult task for the judges to select a winner. However, after extended discussions, the judges selected Dr Yarjan Abdul Samad from the University of Cambridge (UK) as the winner for this year’s Young Leaders Award 2020.”

Dr Yarjan was in the team of scientists who launched Graphene in the extreme environment of space via the MASER14 Rocket of Europe Space Agency launched from the Kiruna base in Sweden. He has developed sustainable methods of creating e-textiles and flexible and stretchable conductors and composites based on three-dimensional (3D) porous architectures of two-dimensional (2D) and layered materials, typically graphene, that scientists and engineers are benchmarking for aerospace composite manufacturing, biosensing, water purification and energy storage.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in material and metallurgy engineering from GIKI in 2009 and pursued a master’s degree in materials from the Masdar Institute for Science and Technology.

Image Source: Naya Daur