Biography
Nazek El-Atab is an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the principal investigator of the Smart, Advanced Memory Devices and Applications (SAMA) Lab. El-Atab joined the University in October 2017, having obtained her B.Sc. in computer and communications engineering in 2012 from Hariri Canadian University, Lebanon, and her M.Sc. in microsystems engineering in 2014 and Ph.D. in interdisciplinary engineering in 2017 from the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, UAE, under a cooperative program with MIT, and funded by the US Office of Naval Research.
At KAUST, El-Atab has worked on several high-impact research projects focusing on designing and fabricating futuristic electronics. Her current research interest focuses on the design and development of smart multifunctional devices including in-memory sensing and computing, 4D printing of actuators with self-sensing capability, among others.
El-Atab is a Senior IEEE Member and currently serves as the Chair of the Western Saudi Arabia IEEE Electron Device Society Chapter. She is an IEEE Electron Devices Society Distinguished Lecturer. She is an associate editor-in-chief at Applied Nanoscience (Springer Nature) and associate editor at the Nano Select by Wiley and Microelectronics Engineering by Elsevier. She has published over 100 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings, authored two book chapters, two books and holds seven filed U.S. patents.
El-Atab has received several significant awards for her research, including the 2015 For Women in Science Middle East Fellowship by L’Oreal-UNESCO, the 2017 International Rising Talents Award by L’Oreal-UNESCO, and was portrayed among the 2019 “Remarkable Women in Technology” by UNESCO. Prof. El-Atab was also selected to participate in the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany, was selected among the 2020 UC Berkeley EECS Rising Stars, among the 10 Innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review Arabia in 2020, among the V60 Women in Sustainability by BCG, and as a “NEOM Changemaker” in 2021.
Her research has been extensively covered in various international publications, including IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, BBC, MIT Technology Review, and Sky News Arabia.
Research Interests
Professor El-Atab’s current research focuses on designing and developing innovative smart memory electronic devices for futuristic in-memory sensing and computing applications. El-Atab and her team aim to enhance an increasingly digitized world for emerging applications like artificial intelligence, IoT and augmented reality.
