Maher El-Kady

Bio

I just got my doctoral degree in chemistry from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at UCLA and a Lecturer of Chemistry at Cairo University. I have 3 United States patents pending on supercapacitors and numerous research articles in prestigious science journals. During my doctoral work at UCLA, I developed a new class of supercapacitors that could charge you cell phone in just a few seconds. Since then, I and my team at UCLA have been working with Maxwell Technologies, the world’s leading manufacturer of supercapacitors, with the goal of turning this technology into a product. I also lectured chemistry classes at Cairo University for which I was awarded the distinguished teaching award in 2007 and 2008. Our team is also working with scientists at NASA to develop graphene supercapacitors for space applications. Our research achievements have been widely recognized by the media in the United States and the Arab World.

Achievements:

Batteries run just about everything portable in our lives such as smartphones, tablets, computers, etc. While we have become accustomed to the rapid improvement of portable electronics, the slow development of batteries is holding back technological progress. But imagine charging your cell phone in just a few seconds. Or consider how transportation would be transformed if it took only a few minutes to fuel up an electric car. This is the core of the research achievement of my work at UCLA. I developed Graphene-based Supercapacitors that can store as much charge as a conventional battery, yet they can be recharged in less than a second compared to hours for conventional batteries. These graphene supercapacitors were created with just a DVD burner and graphite oxide, a commercially available inexpensive precursor to graphene. Flexible and tough, these graphene supercapacitors someday could power a new generation of roll-up computer displays, or electronic fabrics that harvest and store energy produced by body movements. These supercapacitors can be miniaturized to the microscale and readily integrated on silicon chips for the next generation of portable electronics.

This work was highlighted in the prestigious Science magazine Scientific American, USA Today, National Geographic, and Daily Bruin, as well as in Nature.com and was also featured around the internet (links below). For this work, he received the 2012 Herbert Newby McCoy Award “for the student or faculty member in the Chemistry Department of the University of California at Los Angeles making the greatest contribution of the year to the science of chemistry”. This is considered the top award given in UCLA Chemistry.

My research has been named as the KCET ReWire’s most popular story of 2013. KCET is America's largest independent public television station. It was also selected among the most prominent scientific achievements of 2013 according to Aljazeera and Almaghribia. This research work was also picked up by the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower and Immigration for showcasing the work of prominent Egyptians studying abroad.

A good way to understand our technology is to view a three-minute video made for the Sun Dance film festival by the videographer Brian Davis on ideas that could change the world. This video has gone “viral” receiving over 3 million views since it was posted on the internet earlier this year. This video has been selected by the Fast Company Magazine on the list of best designed videos of 2013 with an interview with Steve Jobs came in the first place and our video in the third place. Following this discovery, Prof Kaner (my research advisor at UCLA) and myself have received hundreds of inquiries about using their new graphene supercapacitors for storing energy in everything from portable electronic devices to power plants based on solar energy and even hybrid electric vehicles.

Early on, I got the Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the Faculty of Science at Cairo University with first class honors. I received eight distinguished student awards for being an active and successful student in chemistry. After being recognized as the top student of my year, I was appointed as a teaching and research assistant (mo3eed) in the Department of Chemistry. I TAed many chemistry classes and labs and was awarded the distinguished TA award twice in 2007 and 2008.

In my Master’s program, I worked with Professors Ahmed Galal and Nada Atta on chemical sensors based on conducting polymers and metal nanoparticles. For this work, I received the Best Master’s Thesis Award from the Faculty of Science which includes ten departments in various fields of science.

I have also received Cairo University Presidential Award for Excellence in Research. This award was prestigious enough that Prof. Gamal Esmat, Vice President of Cairo University for Graduate Studies and Research Affairs along with a delegate from the Egyptian Embassy in Washington came a long way to Los Angeles to present the award to Maher in a ceremony that was attended by the Dean of the UCLA School of Letters and Sciences and UCLA Vice Chancellor for Research.

I also represented Egypt in the prestigious 59^th Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Germany. Over in Germany, I featured in a short movie entitled “Nanotechnology: Use and misuse” with Prof. Sir Harold Kroto, the 1996 Nobel laureate in chemistry. The movie was shot by Nature Publishing Group and was featured on the main page of the prestigious Nature.com in 2009 http://www.nature.com/video/lindau2009/index.html

Here are some examples for highlights in international media

The Super Supercapacitor

National Geographic: Supercapacitors Amp Up as an Alternative to Batteries

USA Today: In search of a better battery

Scientific American: Laser engraved graphene could power new kinds of electronics

Daily Mail: The battery breakthrough that could charge your iPhone in five SECONDS

The Week: The search for a better battery

Details: The Makers

Science Magazine: New Technique Could Make Supercapacitors More Competitive with Batteries

Nature.com: Super battery made from graphene

Nature.com: Supercapacitors fit on a chip

Marketplace: Supercapacitor: Today's energy revolution