Research&Projects

Where laboratory microphysics meets the air we breathe. Full detail — results, methods, publications — lives on the CV page.

★ Featured · MS thesis

Ice Nucleation by Lahore Smog Particles

The full research story, told as a two-minute scroll — from building a rooftop air sampler to a reproducible 10.7 °C rise in droplet freezing temperature. The first ice-nucleation study of South Asian urban aerosol.

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New result

Lahore smog under the microscope — SEM / EDX

First electron-microscopy characterization of Lahore's smog particles: ~11,000 measured, ~99% below 2.5 µm, dominated by ice-nucleation-relevant mineral dust. Explore the interactive size distribution, SEM gallery, and EDX composition maps.

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Research interests

Ice Nucleation

How aerosols, biological particles, and engineered surfaces like DNA origami trigger the freezing of supercooled water.

Urban Aerosols & Smog

Characterising the particulate matter in South Asian urban air and what it means for clouds, climate, and health.

Atmospheric Physics

Connecting laboratory microphysics to real-world atmospheric processes through custom instrumentation and sampling.

Highlights

NASA Space Apps Challenge

1st Place — National (2025)

Oxford / Clarendon Lab

DNA origami ice-nucleation collaboration

South Asian urban smog

First INP study of Lahore smog particles

TA'AB (non-profit)

Co-founder · 200+ volunteers

The full list of achievements, activities and certifications lives on the CV page.

Projects & tools

Research

Ice Nucleation Induced by Lahore Smog Particles

Investigated how Lahore smog particles affect ice nucleation in water droplets.

Research

Ice Nucleation on DNA Origami

Collaboration with the Clarendon Lab, Jonathan Bath group, University of Oxford.

Research

Microfluidic Structure Design

Designed a photomask with 11 “crystal hotel” structure variations to test smog and DNA origami in droplets.

Research

Air Sampler Development

Designed and built a custom steel-based air sampler for particulate-matter collection.

2024

Simulation of Heterojunction Solar Cell (Silvaco TCAD)

Simulated heterojunction solar cells by optimising material layers and doping profiles.

2025

Targeted Electricity Subsidy Framework for Pakistan

Analysed NEPRA and World Bank data to study electricity-subsidy distribution.

2025

Contactless Sleep Monitoring

Simulated heart-rate extraction using reflected electromagnetic signals and FFT analysis.

From my lab: real freezing data

Interactive results from my MS thesis — hover to read any point, toggle the samples, or open the raw data table.

My data: droplet-freezing spectrum

Fraction of 12 droplets frozen as they cool. Lahore-smog droplets freeze about 10.7 °C warmer than pure water — direct evidence of active ice-nucleating particles in the smog.

Source: Ice Nucleation Induced by Lahore Smog Particles — MS Physics thesis · LUMS · 2025 · Fig. 4.5. Pure water's homogeneous-freezing limit is ≈ -38 °C; a cleanroom move sharpened the pure-water result from -23.3 °C to -28.4 °C.

Try it: the freezing simulator

A little science toy — cool a droplet and watch supercooled water suddenly crystallise.

20.0°C

Liquid

-30 °C0 °C20 °C

Notice the droplet stays liquid below 0 °C. That's supercooling — freezing needs a nucleus to get started.

Latest in my field

Recent papers on ice nucleating particles, DNA origami ice nucleation and urban aerosol INP — pulled live from the literature.