Prior to joining AUBH, Dr Erik taught at the American University of Sulaimani (Iraq), and at Qatar University, where he served as a faculty member in the chemistry department in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a recipient of the Welsh Scholarship, a full-time reward from Rice University through which he obtained his Master’s and his Ph.D. from the university. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on studying small molecules with a new and novel technique called REP (Raman Excitation Profiles). After finishing his post-doctoral period, Dr Erik worked as a research scientist for the U.S. government at General Atomics in San Diego. This position was followed by that of a scientist consultant for ERAC. After NERAC, Dr Erik chose to change his direction towards academic work and teaching. 

He has over 14 publications in various scientific journals and presented at several international conferences such as ACS (American Chemical Society), Laser Physics, Advanced Electromagnetic Symposiums, and the yearly META conferences. His main fields of research are in the areas of laser spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, nonlinear optics, ultra-short laser pulses, and metamaterials.