Open to opportunities

Awais Ikram

@awaisikram

Message

I develop recyclable high-performance permanent magnets for sustainable manufacturing.

Slovenia

Message

What I'm looking for

I'm looking to pioneer autonomous materials discovery and solve process and design bottlenecks in functional and magnetic materials, combining metallurgy, digital twins, recycling, and scalable manufacturing for traction motors, sensors, and actuators.

At the University of Ljubljana, I research advanced machining and integrate powder metallurgy with additive-subtractive manufacturing for functional materials and complex components.

My work on recycled NdFeB and SmCo permanent magnets uses spark plasma sintering, grain-boundary diffusion, and nano-doping to restore commercial-grade magnetic performance. I achieved up to 93% coercivity augmentation in recycled HDDR NdFeB material.

I co-authored the €3.7 million ARIS Greentech grant for hybrid surface engineering of additively manufactured titanium components and lead REACT-MAG consortium development on ferromagnetic high-entropy alloys. Previously at Keko-Varicon d.o.o. (Bourns Inc.), I corrected vacuum-sintering parameters for multi-oxide varistor compositions to reduce factory-floor defects.

As an External Metallurgical Expert for the European Commission Joint Research Centre, I have authored policy reports on critical raw materials, permanent magnets, and sustainable electric-vehicle traction motors. I also teach Advanced Machining Processes and review for Horizon Europe, M-ERA.NET, HRZZ, and COST Actions.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Assistant Professor - Research

Current

University of Ljubljana

Oct 2019 - Present (6 years 11 months)

Conducts research on advanced machining of ceramics and integration of powder metallurgy with additive-subtractive manufacturing. Teaches graduate-level Advanced Machining Processes to Erasmus students and co-authored a €3.7M ARIS Greentech grant.

Powder Metallurgy Spark Plasma Sintering Grain Boundary Engineering Additive Manufacturing Friction Stir Processing SEM TEM XRD Project Management Grant writing Teaching

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Jožef Stefan Institute

Doctor of Philosophy, Nanosciences and Nanotechnology

2016 - 2019

Activities and societies: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in Horizon2020 DEMETER project

Doctoral research on reprocessing recycled Nd-Fe-B and Sm-Co-based magnets using spark plasma sintering, achieving coercivity gains up to 93% and at-par performance with commercial grades.