Hafsa

Postdoc Profile: Fatima Hafsa

National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW) celebrates the significant contributions postdocs make to research and discovery, both university and nationwide. This Postdoc Profile is a part of a series to commemorate NPAW which takes place from September 15 to 23, 2022. 


Q: What is your name?

Fatima Hafsa

Q: Where are you from?

Karachi, Pakistan

Q: Where do you work at ASU?

College of Global Futures and W. P. Carey School of Business

Q: Where did you earn your doctorate?

PhD, Sustainability Sciences, Arizona State University

Q: What does your research focus on?

I study plastic manufacturing and waste supply chains using an interdisciplinary perspective. My work includes identifying points of innovation and transformation throughout the plastic lifecycle; identifying and analyzing price signals from plastic recycling markets; and recommending appropriate policy and public administration solutions.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I love that Arizona's landscape changes rapidly and it has mountains in 3 different directions. It reminds me of my home, Pakistan, which also has a varying landscape.

Q: What are your career goals? 

I want to set up a research institute that studies the material systems for man-made materials from an interdisciplinary perspective.

More stories from the Graduate Insider

Reimagining search and rescue with drone swarm technology

Johnathan Lok is a first-year PhD student, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) researcher, and the second-place winner of the 2025 Change the World competition for his Rescue Swarm Project. He currently holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Fulton School of Engineering.

Inside Graduate College’s Three Minute Thesis competition

When Aliyah Egan stepped onto the stage as a master’s student in last year’s Graduate College Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, she faced a challenge familiar to many researchers: explaining complex, specialized work to an audience with little or no background in her field.

Save time, stay organized: Citation strategies for graduate writing

In a recent Grad15 webinar, ASU librarian Matthew Ogborn introduced graduate students to citation management tools and offered practical strategies for integrating them into academic research. The session emphasized time-saving, collaboration, and accuracy in managing citations and bibliographies—core skills for graduate-level writing and research.