Dr. Shaikhah Laradhi

Research Scientist III, CIPR

Dr. Sheikha earned her Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where she also completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC). She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science with a focus on Molecular Dynamics.

Her research lies at the intersection of computational physical chemistry and materials science, utilizing ab initio electronic structure methods like Density Functional Theory (DFT) to explore thermodynamic and kinetic properties of materials. She applies these tools to interpret experimental findings and design new heterogeneous catalytic surfaces, with broader implications for photocatalysis, defect engineering, surface chemistry, corrosion, scale formation, and molecular orientation.

Dr. Sheikha is a member of several scientific organizations, including ACM, MRS, ACS, and IAEE, and serves as a Women in Data Science (WiDS) ambassador.

Educational Qualification

Ph.D.,Computational Chemistry. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KSA.
M.S., Computer Science. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KSA.
B.S., (1^st Honors) Information Systems, Prince Sultan University, KSA.

Research Interests

Heterogenous Catalysis and Photocatalysis.
Density Functional Theory.
Modelling of Green Hydrogen Production.
Modelling of Sustainable Nanoparticles for oil industry.

Selected Publications

Sheikha Lardhi, Luigi Cavallo, Moussab Harb. Significant Impact of Exposed Facets on the BiVO4 Material Performance for Photocatalytic Water Splitting Reactions. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters,2020. 5497–5503.
Sheikha Lardhi, Luigi Cavallo, Moussab Harb, Determination of the Intrinsic Defect at the Origin of Poor H₂ Evolution Performance of Monoclinic BiVO₄ Photocatalyst Using Density Functional Theory. J. Phys. Chem. C, 2018. 122 (32): p 18204–18211.
Zhen Cao, Moussab Harb, Sheikha Lardhi, Luigi Cavallo, Impact of Interfacial Defects on the Properties of Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Lateral Heterojunction. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2017.8(7): p 1664–1669.
Sheikha Lardhi, Dalal Noureldine, Moussab Harb, Ahmed Ziani, Luigi Cavallo, Kazuhiro Takanabe, Determination of the electronic, dielectric, and optical properties of sillenite Bi₁₂TiO₂₀ and perovskite-like Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ materials from hybrid first-principle calculations. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2016. 144(13): p. 134702.

Awards & Honors