Zakya H. Kafafi is an Egyptian scientist who is a distinguished research fellow of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Lehigh University. Prior to that she was the first woman to be appointed to the National Science Foundation Director of the Division of Materials Research. She joined NSF after spending 21 years at the US Naval Research Laboratory where she established and led a section on Organic Optoelectronics. She carried out research on organic light-emitting materials and devices, and solar cells.
Kafafi was born in Cairo, Egypt and went to a French private school called Lyçée Français du Caire with her two younger sisters Gehane and Laila. She has said that she became interested in chemistry whilst she was at high school, and that her science teacher Monsieur Georges frequently referred to her as The Chemist.[1] She started her undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Houston, where she minored in mathematics.[2] She gave birth to her first child, a daughter she named Magda, while she was a sophmore in college. She finished her undergraduate degree in 3 years and moved to Rice University for her graduate studies. While at Rice she gave birth to her second child (Hussein Sherif) and gained her MA and PhD in chemistry,[3] in 3 years. She worked on low-temperature spectroscopy of high temperature materials using a technique called Matrix Isolation Spectroscopy. At Rice University Kafafi was friends with one of the pioneers of Matrix Isolation Marilyn E. Jacox.[4] After completing her doctorate, Kafafi moved to Cairo, where she was appointed Assistant Professor.[citation needed] She returned back to Houston Texas in 1981 for a short sabbatical that was extended to a few years for personal reasons.
Research and career
In 1986, while still at Rice University, Kafafi learned about a position open in the Optical Sciences Division at the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).[5] Kafafi eventually joined NRL, where she established the organic optoelectronics section.[6] Here she worked on nonlinear optical properties of organic and polymer materials using degenerate four wave mixing.[2] She transitioned from chemical to materials and physical research, developing and studying the properties of OLEDs.[3] Kafafi spent over twenty years working at the NRL, during which time OLED displays found their way into flat panel display televisions and computers, mobile phones and watches.[2]
In 2007 Kafafi was appointed to the senior executvie position as National Science Foundation Director of the Division of Materials Research, during which time she oversaw a billion dollar budget.[7] She was the first woman to hold such a position.[2][7] In 2010 Kafafi visited Egypt, where she looked to develop partnerships that promoted solar energy across the country.[8]
While at NSF in 2008 Kafafi joined the faculty at Lehigh University first as an Adjunct Professor and later as Distinguished Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.[7] Here she developed metallic plasmonic nanostructures that can increase light absorption and the efficiency of organic photovoltaics.[9][10] These nanostructures make it possible to increase the optical absorption of the active layer of photovoltaics without increasing the layer thickness, allowing for improved device performance without compromising the flexibility or weight.[7]
In 2011 Kafafi established a new journal for the International Sociery of Optics and Photonics. She served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Photonics for Energy for 10 years.[citation needed] In 2014 Kafafi became the inaugural founding Deputy Editor (with five male colleagues) of the new sister journal to ScienceScience Advances.[6][11]
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