Rafik Naccache (B.Sc. ‘00, M.Sc. ‘07, Ph.D. ‘12) received his M.Sc. degree in Chemistry in 2007 from Concordia University (Montreal), where he also obtained his Ph.D. for a thesis entitled “Colloidal Upconverting Nanoparticle Systems for Integration in Targeting, Therapeutics and Imaging Applications” with a rank of “Outstanding” in both oral and written components. His Ph.D. work focused on the synthesis of lanthanide-doped upconverting nanoparticles with the goal of tailoring and fine-tuning nanoparticle size and physico-chemical properties towards biological applications. During his Ph.D., he investigated novel surface functionalization strategies that allowed for the preparation of multimodal nanoparticles for cancer targeting and therapeutics, as well as multimodal imaging, namely optical and magnetic resonance imaging. His work was highlighted in the May 2010 issue of the magazine ‘Decouvrir’. Dr. Naccache is the recipient of several awards including a university entrance scholarship (1996), NSERC undergraduate industrial research grants through the co-op program (1997, 1998) and an FCAR graduate scholarship (2001). In 2010, he was awarded the Alexander Graham Bell NSERC and FQRNT (declined) graduate scholarships to carry out his Ph.D. studies. In 2012, he was the recipient of both NSERC and FQRNT (declined) PDF awards. In addition, in the fall of 2012, Dr. Naccache was awarded the Governor General Gold Medal for his research contributions during his Ph.D. Studies. Since September of 2012, he has joined Professor Roberto Morandotti’s group at INRS-EMT to carry out his postdoctoral work with a focus on Terahertz imaging applications particularly in the area of skin cancer.
Dr. Naccache is the author/co-author of over 22 publications including two invited articles, a review paper and a book chapter. He has published in several prestigious scientific journals such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Advanced Materials and Advanced Functional Materials. Currently, he is a reviewer for several prestigious international publications. Moreover, he is a co inventor of two pharmaceutical patents owing to his 10 year industrial experience as a research chemist at Merck Frosst Canada, Ltd. from 1998-2008 (full time position).
(* denotes conference presenter)