Dr. Ibrar Yaqoob is the program lead for the Smart and Resilient Supply Chain strand at the AICF Institute, where he leads a group of PhD students and postdoctoral research fellows. He has been a Visiting Academic ([email protected]) at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He serves/served on the editorial boards of IEEE, Elsevier, and Springer journals, including IEEE Network Magazine, Elsevier's Future Generation Computer Systems journal, and Springer's HCIS, among others. 

Before joining the AICF, Dr. Yaqoob worked as a Research Scientist with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Khalifa University, United Arab Emirates. Previously, he worked as a Research Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, South Korea. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Universiti Malaya (2017).

His current research focuses on leveraging blockchain, NFTs, and metaverse for healthcare, supply chain and logistics, wireless networks, IoT, and smart cities. Furthermore, he has conducted research in the areas of mobile edge-cloud computing, IoT, computer networks, and big data. 

With stable authorship through his research groups at previous institutions: Khalifa University, Kyung Hee University, Universiti Malaya, and CSU, Dr. Yaqoob has authored over 100 research articles (98.9% Q1 (Scopus); FWCI: 6.44), with more than 50% of them as the corresponding author (Clarivate-WoS). His works have earned more than 25,000 citations with an h-index of 60.

Dr. Yaqoob’s overall research outputs have a measurable impact on society, industry, and policy, as evidenced by citations in 42 patents and 63 policy documents. Additionally, 37 of his publications have been mapped to seven United Nations SDGs (SciVal, 2015–2024). 

He is an Investigator on several projects, including the (1) AgriTwins: Bridging Cyber-secure Emerging Technologies and Datacentric Twin Tech for Resilient Agriculture of the Future project, funded under the CSIRO Next Generation Scheme, Round 3, Regional Stream, for the period 2025-2028, with a total project funding of [AUD $2.38million]. His role in the AgriTwins project involves leading two interdisciplinary projects as Chief Investigator and one as Co-Investigator (a total of three, with a value of $523,215 AUD). (2) Chief Investigator on the Trustworthy Operations and Supply Chain Management in Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Using Blockchain, NFTs, and the Metaverse project, supported by AICF Seed Funding, Round 2023, for 2023-2024 [AUD $10,000]. (3) Chief Investigator on the INT-1387 Decentralised AI Juries: Exploring AI Agent AppChains as a Solution for Automated Online Dispute Resolution, supported by the University of Melbourne - APRI Facilitator [AUD $13,875].

His research achievements and services are listed below.

• Ranked in the world's top 0.1 percent of researchers for three consecutive years - 2023, 2022, and 2021, as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate-Web of Science.
• Listed among the World's top 2% scientists for 06 consecutive years - 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020, as reported by John P. A. Ioannidis from Stanford University (USA) & Elsevier.
• Ranked among the top Computer Science scientists in Australia in 2024 and 2025 (National Rank: 145) by Research.com.
• Ranked #14 in Australia among the World's Rising Stars of Science for 2025 by Research.com.
• Ranked twice in 2023 and 2024 among the top 0.05% of scholars worldwide by ScholarGPS.
• 2024 Vice Chancellor’s Researcher of the Year Researcher Faculty Commendation.
• 2024 AICF Research Excellence Award.
• 13 of his research articles have been listed as "highly cited papers" (top 1%) by the Web of Science.
• 21 of his research articles have been listed as the most downloaded articles.
• Serves/Served on the editorial boards of IEEE, Elsevier, and Springer journals, including IEEE Network Magazine (Q1- Top 2%), Elsevier's Future Generation Computer Systems journal (Q1-Rank A), IEEE Access (Q1), and Springer's HCIS (Q1), among others. 
• 2024 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine Best Paper Award (1st Place).
• 2022 Outstanding Editor for the Future Generation Computer Systems Journal. 
• Played various roles in IEEE/ACM conferences and workshops, serving as Chair, Co-chair, and Track Chair.
• One of his research articles was selected for the Editor's Choice award by the Future Generation Computer Systems journal.
• Outstanding organizer, Malaysian National Cloud Conference, MNCC 2015. 
• Outstanding reviewer, Future Generation Computer Systems Journal.
• Outstanding reviewer, Journal of Network and Computer Applications.
• Selected for a postdoctoral fellowship in South Korea under the Brain Korea 21st Century Plus grant. 
• Won a Bright Sparks scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. degree at the Universiti Malaya, Malaysia.
• He is an IEEE Senior Member.

Research Staff and Graduate Students:

Dr. Abdullah Yousafzai, Research Fellow  

Muhmmad Mohsan Sheeraz, Ph.D. Candidate 

• Blockchain and Applications
• NFTs and Metaverse
• Mobile Edge-Cloud Computing
• IoT, Smart Cities, and Big Data