Hello, and welcome to my page. I am a research scientist, in the school of Geosciences, University of South Florida. I research the origin of life on early Earth. I particularly study the origin of biological phosphate esters, mineral, and clays catalysis on Earth and beyond.
I am originally from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. My life is a fascinating story of struggle and continuous efforts. I believe in taking one step at a time and moving towards the goals of life with patience and diligence.
In 2000, I received my BS in sciences (with distinction) from Lahore, my native city, and started my MS in organic chemistry from the University of Punjab, Lahore (2002) followed by an M.Phil in Inorganic Chemistry from the same institution (2004). During the completion of my M.Phil studies, I also served as a middle school science teacher in Pakistan's leading private school, Aitchison College, Lahore (2004-2005). In 2006, I joined University and Engineering and Technology, Lahore as a lecturer.
And in the same year, I was awarded a fully-funded Cultural exchange scholarship by the Chinese scholarship council and the Government of Pakistan to pursue my Ph.D. in Chemistry at Jilin University, Changchun, China. This is when I grew much closer to the origin of life chemistry. I researched at the lab. of Professor Feng Shouhua on Hydrothermal biochemistry and successfully graduated (with distinction and Roll of Honor) in June 2010. Finally, I returned back to my native country to start my career as an assistant professor at the University of Engineering and Technology. In 2011, I was extremely fortunate to start my post-doctorate research at the University of South Florida, in Professor Matthew Pasek's lab. (a world's leading phosphorus expert/geochemist). I have been part of the University of South Florida since then and research on various aspects of prebiotic chemistry.