Zeba Qadri
Post : Research Associate, CQTS
A First-Class-First position holder in B.Sc. Chemistry (Honours) from St. Mary’s College, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India and a Master’s degree specializing in Analytical Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, India. Qualified the prestigious National Eligibility Test (UGC-CSIR NET-LS) for Lectureship at the very first attempt in December’ 2007.
During my graduation and post-graduation my interest in Quantum Mechanics and Spectroscopy developed and to further improve my own understanding and increase my expertise in these areas, I decided to pursue a doctoral program in Solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (ssNMR) and joined as a Junior Research Fellow at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, India, one of the premiere science Institutes in the country under the esteemed supervision of Dr. Ramesh Ramachandran in the year 2009. My PhD work was primarily centered around improving the design of multi-dimensional solid-state NMR experiments for studying less sensitive/abundant nuclei and saving experimental times in solid-state NMR as well as prevention of biological sample damage owing to high power radiofrequency fields. I was involved in developing the analytic theory of Cross-Polarization (CP) experiments at fast Magic angle spinning (MAS) employing the Floquet theory approach.
Following the completion of my doctoral studies I bagged an NIH (National Institute of Health) funded Postdoctoral position at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA with Dr. A. Aria Tzika. During my Postdoctoral research at Harvard I was involved in conducting brain MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) studies to monitor recovery in patients with chronic stroke. Advanced imaging techniques like Volumetric MRI, functional MRI (fMRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were performed. I have also been associated with teaching in various institutions across UAE.
Later in October 2023 I joined as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Center for Quantum and Topological Systems (CQTS) at NYU Abu Dhabi with Dr. Asif Equbal. Currently I am working towards enhancing spin coherence times in solid-state NMR measurements focused towards designing sophisticated decoupling pulse schemes for fast MAS regimes. I have been working towards designing new decoupling experiments as well as refining existing ones for 1H and 19F nuclei. In addition to my ongoing work on the decoupling project, I have recently embarked on an initial stage of research in Hyperpolarized 13C MRI. This new venture aims to explore advanced techniques to enhance MRI sensitivity and imaging capabilities. While the project is still in its early phases, it holds the potential to significantly impact the field of medical imaging.