Rafia is Research Associate working in area of heterogenous catalysis, coordination chemistry and surface sciences. Her research interests focus on designing innovative catalysts for oxygen evolution reactions and other related reactions to address the global energy crisis. She aims to develop efficient and sustainable solutions for clean energy production through advanced catalyst design.

Previously Rafia worked as a PhD researcher at Yusuf Hamied department of Chemistry, Cambridge UK and Quaid I Azam university Pakistan as a commonwealth fellow for development of novel catalysts for oxygen evolution reactions. This project crafted a new and unique class of catalysts that demonstrated globally competitive performance by combining non-precious metals with novel organic ligands via a low-temperature route. Furthermore, insights into molecular phenomena at the surface of these catalysts were gained by employing advanced techniques such as SEM/TEM EDS, XPS, among others. This work has recently be patented with Cambridge Enterprise with Rafia been named sole inventor.