News

Recently, Dr. Awais Qadir joined the YCN committee as a new member. Dr. Qadir is a researcher at TU Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany, where he is involved in developing artificial diamonds, which are super hard materials based on ceramics nitrides (BN, Si3N4, AlN, and SiAlON) for cutting tools and indenter applications. He is a young entrepreneur and founder of Pakistan-based startup Qadir Materials Tech.

When he was asked about his feelings on joining the committee, he expressed it in this way: “I feel immense pleasure to be a part of the YCN committee and it is a privilege to serve the community. I believe that working with YCN will impinge my leadership and managerial skills along with networking and collaboration. I am following this network since its creation. Now that I became a committee member, it is a big achievement for me and at the same time, I feel the responsibility that comes with this job. I hope I will fulfill my duty.

With an entrepreneurial mindset, he aims to contribute new energy to the network. We are interested to know his thoughts about what he can introduce to the network. He added: “Despite strengthening the existing initiatives, I intend to bring new approaches and strategies on how the two sectors can, the ceramics industry and academia, work closely together to satisfy their demands. I also plan how can YCN promote and encourage students and young ceramists to convert their research ideas or problems into business.

We asked him if he could tell us about a specific initiative that he would take if he would have the opportunity. He continued: “After estimating the available resources at YCN, I would allocate some means to start a program for young ceramists about how to turn their research ideas into business. For example, we can develop incubation centers for start-ups with the cooperation of local industry and academia. Specifically, In the field of ceramics, I see gender imbalance. I would like to take initiatives to address this issue. In my opinion, this could be achieved by organizing seminars and activities in local schools to attract more youth especially females to science and ceramics. 

We asked him how he sees YCN, and he concluded in one sentence: “In my opinion, YCN has got such big potential because hundreds of young bright minds are connected to this network. YCN can easily reach, mobilize, and exploit their talent to do a breakthrough in ceramics field for the benefit of the world.”

The committee warmly welcomes him to the team. We are looking forward to working with him and believe he will strengthen our organization.

awais.qadir@iww.tu-freiberg.de