Rahaf Bahajry Receives Student Presenter Award at the Electrostatics Conference

The Student Presenter Award recognizes outstanding student presentations at the annual Electrostatics Conference. The award is based on the quality of the research, the presentation, and the student’s ability to communicate their work to attendees from academia and industry.

Bahajry’s presentation, “Characterization of Triboelectrically Charged Micropowders via Aerosol Instrumentation,” focused on developing a novel method to measure the size-resolved charge distribution of triboelectrically charged polymer microparticles. By combining aerosol instrumentation with electrical mobility analysis, the technique provides detailed insight into particle charging behavior and enables more efficient characterization of powder charging processes. The work has applications in powder coating, additive manufacturing, pharmaceutical powders, and other industries where electrostatic charging plays an important role.

Her advisor, Professor Chris Hogan, shared:

“Rahaf’s research, which is described in two peer-reviewed papers she has published, uniquely combines aerosol instruments commonly used to characterize the size distribution of nanoparticles to determine the charge distribution of much larger microparticles. She has come up with a rather clever method of applying aerosol instruments for an entirely new application — tribological charge characterization for the powder coating industry.”

Reflecting on what the recognition means, Bahajry shares:

“Receiving this award was especially meaningful because it recognized several years of research and development during my Ph.D. It was rewarding to see the work resonate with researchers and industry professionals in the electrostatics community, and it motivates me to continue developing practical measurement techniques for charged particle systems.”