Niveen Khashab

Dr. Niveen M. Khashab is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Science and Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at KAUST. She assumed her duties in June 2009.undefinedundefinedDuring her doctoral studies at University of Florida in Gainesville in the United States, Dr. Khashab trained in heterocyclic and medicinal chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Alan R. Katritzky. Her graduate work alone resulted in 45 articles, invited talks and conference proceedings. Moreover, she was the first chemist to report a bezotriazole coupling reagent for microwave-assisted solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). Dr. Khashab helped in organizing the IUPAC Florida Heterocyclic Conferences (Flohet) for five consecutive years. Through her graduate career at Florida, Dr. Khashab was awarded the Crow Award for Organic Chemistry Creativity in 2005 and The Teaching Effectiveness award in 2004.undefinedundefinedDuring her postdoctoral studies at University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) and then at Northwestern University, Dr. Khashab continued her training in Sir Fraser Stoddart’s laboratory, where she worked on designing and making biocompatible mechanized silica nanoparticles for the specific delivery of antitumor drugs to breast cancer tissues. Dr. Khashab’s interests are in programmable microscale robots comprised of nanoscale parts fabricated to nanometer precision. She believes that the ability to direct events in a controlled fashion at the cellular level is the key that will unlock the indefinite extension of human health and the expansion of human abilities.undefinedundefinedIn addition to 27 papers, talks, and conference proceedings during her postdoctoral work, Dr. Khashab co-authored a patent filed at UCLA for controlled drug delivery. She also authored a chapter about Triazol-4-Amine for the Encylopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (EROS), Wiley 2010.undefinedundefinedDr. Khashab began her training as a chemist at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where she graduated in June 2002. Under the supervision of Dr. M. J. Haddadin, she worked on developing new pericyclic reaction and the synthesis of caged complexes as enzyme mimics. She joined the chemistry program at the University of Florida and graduated in 2006 with a doctorate in organic chemistry and a minor in medicinal chemistry.