Dr. Shira Haber

Shira Haber’s joint bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Talmud from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem prepared her for conducting in-depth research and asking comprehensive questions as a material scientist.

After working as a quality control associate at a pharmaceutical company, she returned to university, completing a PhD in Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Molecular Chemistry and Material Science, attracted by its commitment to sustainability and nature preservation.

Dr. Haber used solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study how structural transformations and chemical processes at the cathode-electrolyte interface in lithium-ion batteries control ionic transport across interfaces.

Dr. Haber also used NMR to investigate polymer microstructure  and deconstruction in her postdoctoral research, which she conducted both in the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and in the Department of Chemistry at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

In her faculty position at Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Chemistry, Dr. Haber continues her research into polymer materials. Although widely used for manufacturing automotives, consumer electronics, clothing and medical devices, only about 9% of this plastic is recycled, leaving a toxic trail in the environment and strongly impacting global health. Dr. Haber hopes to use NMR to better understand material deconstruction into useful smaller fragments, and eventually replace current recycling efforts that are based on mechanical grinding, which decreases the performance and value of the materials, with innovative solutions that could propel the field towards a more sustainable and environmentally conscious future.