Dr. Ibrahim Abdelwahab
Dr. Ibrahim Abdelwahab is a Staff Scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) at Harvard University. Prior to joining Harvard, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Faculty of Physics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU).
Ibrahim holds a Ph.D. degree and DIC in physics from Imperial College London, a Ph.D. degree in integrative sciences and engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS), an M.Sc. in nanoscience from Lund University, and a B.Sc. (Hons) in applied chemistry from Helwan University. He completed a joint NUS–Imperial College Ph.D. program, recognized for its international quality and rigor, satisfying the demands of two world-leading universities. His Ph.D. research was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Kian Ping Loh in Singapore and Prof. Stefan Maier in London (2015-2019). Prior to his doctoral studies, he completed his master’s research project in Prof. Mauricio Terrones' lab at Penn State in 2012 as a visiting research scholar from Lund University. He has also been involved in research projects at several leading academic and research institutions, including the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), and Grenoble Alpes University.
Ibrahim specializes in cryogenic nanoscopy, using advanced scanning probe techniques such as cryogenic s‑SNOM and PiFM to probe the optical and electronic properties of low-dimensional quantum materials at sub‑10 nm resolution (from the visible to the terahertz) and at temperatures below 10 K. By identifying and engineering next-generation quantum materials, his research drives the development of energy-efficient devices critical for sustainable AI, quantum hardware, and future energy technologies. He has authored and co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier scientific journals such as Science, Nature Photonics, Nature Materials, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, JACS, ACS Nano, and Nano Letters. In 2021, his contributions were recognized by MIT Technology Review, naming him one of the Innovators Under 35.