Abdelrahman Zkria

My name is Abdelrahman Zkria, I’m an Egyptian researcher, working on academia since 2008. From day one, I have a dream of travelling abroad and span the globe. In 2010, i studied my master in Graz University, Austria, it was a good experience to keep holding my dream. After Master degree, I applied to different PhD scholarships and finally I was accepted by two scholarships: one is German Academic (DAAD) scholarship to study my PhD at Jacob University, Bremen, Germany.

Another is Egyptian government (MOHE) to study my PhD at Kyushu University, Japan. It was really a critical decision to withdraw one of them; it means I planned for next four years of my life and my family life in which country Germany or Japan. Based on my previous experience in Austria where they speak German, anybody will go with Germany, but I had a different opinion. I chose to study my PhD in Japan and to start a new journey with discovering the other side of the earth, so called “Japan Planet”. My journey was not easy from the first day, due to normal circumstances of language barrier, culture shock etc. However, in japan you will be able to overcome all of these barriers in a couple of weeks.

I have now been working in the scientific research field internationally in Egypt, Europe, US and Japan for about 10 years. I got BSc degree in science 2006, my bachelor study of physics covered wide topics from a fundamental background. I continued with my master studies in physic department, South valley university, Egypt. In 2010, I joined nanophysics master program at Karl-Franzens University, Austria, as an Erasmus exchange master student. In this program, I attended classes of nanophysics; I gained the experience to handle wide range of experimental techniques at KF-Graz and TU-Graz.
As a great step in my career path, in 2013, I joined the diamond research group at Kyushu University, Japan. In the diamond group, and based on admiration for nanophysics and nanomaterials I was eager for more than just studies for a PhD degree. I studied the fabrication of ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films by physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods. I could successfully progress the research, publish the data in peer-reviewed journals and present our results in many international conferences, in Japan, Korea, Australia, and US. Getting my PhD, I was selected by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to continue my research in japan, as a postdoc fellow, in a project entitled “Development of nanocarbon thin films for all-carbon photovoltaics”. JSPS fellowship is one of the most prestigious fellowship with 2500 applicants per year from all over the world, and acceptance rate of 10%.
My current activity as a postdoc is to progress the research in the Diamond research group. We are working on the fabrication of homojunction comprising of n-type N-doped-/p-type B-doped-UNCD/a-C:H films. Simultaneously, I am doing the research in application of laser-induced doping into single crystalline and nanocrystalline diamond. Related to laser research topic, I joined the group of Prof. Jay Narayan at Department of Material science and Engineering, North Carolina State University as a visiting scientist during Nov.2018-Feb.2019, funded by the JSPS-Grant.
By working in research for years, having joined different research groups in different countries spanning the globe, and by teaching physics for about 4 years, I can conclude to that in japan (as general), and Kyushu University as particular, you can find well-equipped laboratories and high-tech facilities, all you need to bring are your brilliant ideas and start to create your own story.