This Nanomaterial Physicist has produced significant works for development of sciences, especially in Nano synthetic, characterization, and theory development. Prof. Mikrajuddin has achieved several feats on scholarly. He wrote more than 300 scientific papers, 140 of which are Scopus indexed. Out of those 140 papers, 94 are international scientific journals and 46 are international proceedings (Scopus indexed).

On August 2018, he was cited 1,735 times on Scopus with h-index of 21. At the same time, he was cited 2,806 times on Scholar Google with h-index of 26. According to Kemenristekdikti’s SINTA, he gets 95.15, the second highest for ITB lecturers and the seventh highest nationally (by August 2018). Mikrajuddin also has 13 work patents consisting 3 granted patents and 10 listed patents.

Besides Prof. Mikrajuddin, two other award recipients are Prof dr Rovina Ruslami SpP, PhD (Medical Science) from Universitas Padjajaran, and Prof dr Edvin Aldrian B. Eng, M.Sc (Engineering Science) from Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology. Chair of Yayasan SDM IPTEK, Wardiman Djojonegoro said that Habibie Award is given to chosen scientists. The award is given to scientists who create innovation for the development of science and technology in Indonesia.

Prof. Mikrajuddin graduated from B. Sc. of Physics at ITB in 1992. He continued his study in 1993 on Master of Physics Program at ITB and graduated in 1996. On 1994, he was appointed as a lecturer at Physics Department of ITB. He became a research student at Hiroshima University, Japan in 1998 and pursued his doctoral degree at the same university in 1999-2002 with scholarship from Monbusho. In 2002, he graduated and received his Dr.Eng. (Doctor of Engineering) in Chemical Engineering.

His doctoral research focuses on the synthetic and characteristic of nanomaterial and development of theory relating to nanomaterial. In 2002-2004, he received post-doctoral fellowship from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to conduct research at Hiroshima University in nanomaterial (synthetic, characteristic, and theory development). In 2004, he got back to Indonesia. On June 2010, he received professor rank in Nanomaterial Physics at 41 years and 8 months.

Prof. Mikrajuddin encourages all researchers in Indonesia to keep working and stop complaining about limited facilities. He said that, even in a limited condition, we can still conduct researches and create quality works.

“When I got back (from Japan), research tools that I needed was not available. But that condition could make us more creative. In my mind that time was, if we do not have the tools, we will make it ourselves. Maybe the shape is not as good as the one on the market, but at least it functions the same,” he said on booklet of Habibie Award.

*Some research tools by Prof. Mikrajuddin made of simple materials but resulted in quality scientific works. (Photo: Doc. of Prof. Mikrajuddin Abdullah)

* Reactor for liquid waste processing made of solar-activated nanomaterial (Photo: Doc. of Prof. Mikrajuddin Abdullah)

Prof Mikrajuddin said that, researchers, especially Ph.D graduates from good universities abroad, would be able to become research heroes in Indonesia. Heroes are not people who work under pleasant condition, but people who work under unpleasant condition to create pleasant condition for next generations. “Heroes are people who work not for themselves, but for the generation that succeed them,” he said.

Prof. Mikrajuddin has won several awards, 1st place for Outstanding Lecturer of ITB in 2010, 1st place for National Outstanding Lecturer in 2010, ITB Innovation Award in 2017, and Putra NTB Utama Award from the Governor of West Nusa Tenggara in 2017.