My current research focuses on the physics of the interactions and transport phenomena in condensed matter. Specifically, using ab initio theoretical and computational tools, I study how the scattering processes in matter – electron-phonon, phonon-phonon, phonon-defects, electron-defects, etc. – affect the transport properties. I am also generally interested in superconductivity, topological defects, and topological phases among various other topics.

I currently hold a Humboldt Research Fellowship at the Institue of Physics, Humboldt University of Berlin. Previously, I have been a postdoctoral researcher at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and a postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University following my PhD in Physics from Boston College in 2019.

I am the developer of elphbolt - a Free/Libre program for calculating the coupled and decoupled electron and phonon Boltzmann transport equations. Interested in the electron-phonon drag effect? Here, take elphbolt for a test drive and let me know what you think! Below is a talk I gave on November 12, 2021 in Barcelona introducing the code:

Here are the highlights of my work.

For academic matters you can reach me at nakib [dot] haider [dot] protik [at] gmail [dot] com.

• Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
  • Postdoctoral Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2022 - 2024
• ICN2, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Catalonia, Spain
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, 2021 - 2022
• Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019 - 2021
• Boston College, Massachusetts, USA
  • PhD in Physics, 2014 - 2019
• University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • M.Sc. in Physics, 2011 - 2013
• Brac University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • B.S. in Physics with minor in Computer Science, 2006 - 2010

• (2022-24) Humboldt Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
• (2022) German Language Course Scholarship at the Goethe Institute, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
• (2016-18) Conference travel grant, Graduate Student Association, Boston College.
• (2016-18) Conference travel grant, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Boston College.
• (2011-13) Differential admission scholarship, University of Ottawa.
• (2010) Highest Distinction & Vice Chancellor's Medal, Brac University.
• (2009) Erasmus Mundus scholarship.

(* = equal contribution)

• Nakib H. Protik and Claudia Draxl. Beyond the Tamura model of the phonon-isotope scattering. arXiv preprint. 2024.
• Mahmoud Elhajhasan, Wilken Seemann, Katharina Dudde, Daniel Vaske, Gordon Callsen, Ian Rousseau, Thomas F. K. Weatherley, Jean-François Carlin, Raphaël Butté, and Nicolas Grandjean, Nakib H. Protik, and Giuseppe Romano. Joined optical and thermal characterization of a III-nitride semiconductor membrane by micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy and Raman thermometry. Physical Review B. 2023.
• Krzysztof Kempa, Nakib H. Protik, Tyler Dodge, Claudia Draxl, and Michael J. Naughton. Enhancing superconductivity with resonant antishielding and topological plasmon-polarons. Physical Review B. 2023.
• Yu Xie, Jonathan Vandermause, Senja Ramakers, Nakib H. Protik, Anders Johansson, and Boris Kozinsky. Uncertainty-aware molecular dynamics from Bayesian active learning for phase transformations and thermal transport in SiC. npj Computational Materials. 2023.
• Chunhua Li, Nakib H. Protik, Navaneetha K. Ravichandran, and David Broido. High-frequency phonons drive large phonon-drag thermopower in semiconductors at high carrier density. Physical Review B. 2023.
• Chunhua Li, Nakib H. Protik, Pablo Ordejón, and David Broido. Colossal phonon drag enhanced thermopower in lightly doped diamond. Materials Today Physics. 2022.
• Nakib H. Protik, Chunhua Li, Miguel Pruneda, David Broido, and Pablo Ordejón. The elphbolt ab initio solver for the coupled electron-phonon Boltzmann transport equations. npj Computational Materials. 2022.
• Zhe Cheng, Weifang Lu, Jingjing Shi, Daiki Tanaka, Nakib H. Protik, Shangkun Wang, Motoaki Iwaya, Tetsuya Takeuchi, Satoshi Kamiyama, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Samuel Graham. Quasi-Ballistic Thermal Conduction in 6H-SiC Materials Today Physics. 2021.
• Mauro Fava*, Nakib H. Protik*, Chunhua Li, Navaneetha Krishnan Ravichandran, Jesús Carrete, Ambroise van Roekeghem, Georg K. H. Madsen, Natalio Mingo, and David Broido. How dopants limit the ultrahigh thermal conductivity of boron arsenide: a first principles study. npj Computational Materials. 2021.
• Nakib H. Protik and Boris Kozinsky. Electron-phonon drag enhancement of transport properties from a fully coupled ab initio Boltzmann formalism. Physical Review B. 2020.
• Nakib H. Protik and David Broido. Coupled transport of phonons and carriers in semiconductors: A case study of n-doped GaAs Physical Review B. 2020. [Editors' Choice]
• Xueyuan Wu*, Jiantao Kong*, Nakib H. Protik*, David Broido, and Krzysztof Kempa. Tailoring the electron-phonon interaction with metallic plasmonic structures. Materials Today Physics 8. 2019.
• Nakib H. Protik, Ankita Katre, Lucas Lindsay, Jesús Carrete, Natalio Mingo, David Broido. Phonon thermal transport in 2H, 4H and 6H silicon carbide from first principles. Materials Today Physics. 2017.
• Nakib H. Protik, Jesús Carrete, Nebil A. Katcho, Natalio Mingo, and David Broido. Ab initio study of the effect of vacancies on the thermal conductivity of boron arsenide. Physical Review B. 2016.
• G Orlando, C R McDonald, Nakib H. Protik, G Vampa and T Brabec. Tunneling time, what does it mean? Journal of Physics B. 2014.
• G. Orlando, C. R. McDonald, Nakib H. Protik and T. Brabec. Identification of the Keldysh time as a lower limit for the tunneling time. Physical Review A. 2014.

• Nakib Haider Protik. Coupled transport of the interacting electron-phonon gas – state of the art and the future. At: Solid State Seminar, Institute of Solid State Physics and Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, November 1, 2022.
• Nakib Haider Protik, Chunhua Li, Miguel Pruneda, David Broido, and Pablo Ordejón. elphbolt - A free software for coupled electron-phonon Boltzmann transport (video link). At: International Workshop on Advanced Materials-to-Device Solutions for Synaptic Electronics, Session 4, Barcelona, November 12, 2021.

• Nakib Haider Protik. Dragful electron-phonon transpot – elphbolt a year and a half on. At: HoW exciting 2023, August 9, 2023.
• Nakib Haider Protik and Claudia Draxl. When does the Tamura Model of phonon-isotope scattering break down? At: APS March Meeting, March 21, 2023 and DPG Meeting, Dresden, March 27, 2023.
• Nakib Haider Protik and Claudia Draxl. Electron-phonon drag in MgB\(_{2}\). At: DPG Meeting, Regensburg, September 7, 2022.
• Nakib Haider Protik, Chunhua Li, Miguel Pruneda, David Broido, and Pablo Ordejón. elphbolt: An ab initio solver for the coupled and decoupled electron and phonon Boltzmann transport equations. At: APS March Meeting, March 15, 2022.
• Nakib Haider Protik, Chunhua Li, Miguel Pruneda, David Broido, and Pablo Ordejón. elphbolt - A free software for coupled electron-phonon Boltzmann transport (video link). At: International Workshop on Advanced Materials-to-Device Solutions for Synaptic Electronics, Session 4, Barcelona, November 12, 2021.
• Nakib Haider Protik and Boris Kozinsky. Electron-phonon drag enhancement of transport properties from fully coupled ab initio Boltzmann formalism. At: APS March Meeting, March 17, 2021.
• Nakib Haider Protik, Mauro Fava, Natalio Mingo, Jesús Carrete, Georg Madsen, Navaneetha Ravichandran and David Broido. Effect of substitutional defects on the thermal conductivity of boron arsenide. At: APS March Meeting, Boston, March 4, 2019.
• Nakib Haider Protik and David Broido. Effect of plasmon-LO phonon coupling on the mobility of GaN. At: APS March Meeting, Los Angeles, March 7, 2018.
• Nakib Haider Protik, Ankita Katre, Lucas Lindsay, Jesús Carrete, Bonny Dongre, Georg K. H. Madsen, Natalio Mingo, David Broido. Phonon thermal transport in 2H, 4H and 6H silicon carbide from first principles. At: APS March Meeting, New Orleans, March 13, 2017.
• Nakib Haider Protik, Jesús Carrete, Natalio Mingo, Nebil A. Katcho and David Broido. Ab initio study of the effect of vacancies on the thermal conductivity. At: APS March Meeting, Baltimore, March 15, 2016.
• Nakib Haider Protik. Quantum Manybody Physics (Or what I've been up to since I left BRACU). At: BRAC University, June 19, 2014.
• Nakib Haider Protik. Manybody Quantum Dynamics. In: Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Physics Graduate Symposia, April 30, 2013.
• Nakib Haider Protik and Arshad Momen. Simulating the Topologically Massive Maxwell Theory on the Moyal Plane. In: International Conference on Recent Advance in Physics - 2010, March 29, 2010. Technical Session 4B: Statistical and Theoretical Physics - 1.
• Arshad Momen and Nakib Haider Protik. Simulating the Abelian Chern-Simons Theory on the Moyal Plane. In: Physics Conference, TIM - 09, November 27, 2009. Section: Theoretical and Computational Physics.

• Boston College

Teaching Assistant

• Quantum Physics I
• Intro to Physics Recitation I, II
• 1st year physics labs

• University of Ottawa

Teaching Assistant

• Fundamentals of Applied Physics III
• Advanced Optics & Introduction to Photonics
• Principles of Physics I
• Electricity and Magnetism
• Fundamentals of Physics for Engineers
• Physics year 1 lab

• BRAC University

Teaching Assistant

• Applied Physics Lab I lab
• Principles of Physics I, II labs
• Mathematics II lab

Lab Assistant

• Physics Lab I,III