Zahra Fakhraai
Zahra received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in physics from the Sharif University of Technology in Iran. In 2003, she joined James Forrest’s group at the University of Waterloo. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Waterloo in 2007, and from 2007 to 2008, Zahra worked in Gilbert Walker’s group at the University of Toronto. Subsequently, she moved to Mark Ediger’s group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2009-2011) with an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship from the Canadian government. She joined Penn Chemistry in 2011 and is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry with secondary positions at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Since joining Penn Chemistry, Zahra and her group have explored the properties of materials at nanometer length scales. Fakhraai group explores enhanced surface mobility and its role in the formation of stable amorphous packings, as well as thermodynamics of nano-confined and nanostructured polymer nanocomposites and block copolymers. The inclusion of 2D materials in polymers and their resulting thermal, transport, and optical properties are also of interest.Z ahra is an active member of both the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society and serves as a Topic Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Zahra identifies as a material scientist interested in materials properties in small length scales and extremely slow dynamics.
