Marieh Bassam Al-Handawi
Postdoctoral Associate
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: MA: New York University (GSAS); PhD: New York University (GSAS)
Research Websites: Smart Materials Lab (SML)
Research Areas: Water harvesting, Bioluminescence, Biomimetic materials, Biomineralization, Crystallography, Self-healing
Marieh B. Al-Handawi earned her MSc and PhD in chemistry from the USA at New York University's Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS) in 2022. She is currently working as a Postdoctoral Associate in Naumov's Smart Materials Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi, where she is involved in various interdisciplinary projects related to the design, fabrication, and characterization of materials. Her primary research focuses on smart materials, where she develops single crystals that serve as efficient energy harvesters or mechanical actuators. She also conducts extensive research on the self-healing properties of various organic and perovskite crystals, which are a desirable class of semiconducting materials for optoelectronic applications. In the realm of health, her research challenged conventional disease pathology by shedding light on cholesterol crystallization within arterial plaques. She also ventured into virology, where she developed bioinspired materials to thermally stabilize vaccines at high temperatures, eliminating the need for energy-intensive cold chains.
During her PhD, Al-Handawi's main research interest was focused on addressing the growing crisis of freshwater scarcity, particularly in the Middle East. She conducted extensive fieldwork in the UAE desert to find bioinspired solutions for aerial water harvesting, where she discovered a desert halophyte that can collect and condense extensive amounts of water from the air at low humidity levels. Inspired by nature, she also developed biodegradable hydrogels that autonomously collect and release water, and engineered organic crystals with microchannels to condense aerial water and guide water droplets for small cargo transport. Together, her innovations offer scalable solutions for applications such as self-irrigation, cloud seeding, and microfluidic systems.
Al-Handawi's work has had a profound impact on the scientific community, as evident in her authorship of high-impact publications such as: Nature Chemistry, Nature Reviews Chemistry, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, and many more. As a testament to her significant impact on the scientific community, her work has also been featured in prominent media outlets such as CNN's Bold Pursuit show, The Guardian, Science, Nature Middle East, Khaleej Times, The National, Smithsonian Magazine, and many more. Her work on halophytes has also been incorporated in educational magazines for high school students studying biology, which can reach up to 5,000 readers worldwide.