Assaf was born in kibbutz Gezer, but moved at a young age to "Hakfar Hayarok" youth village where he also studied during high school. He did his bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology at Tel-Aviv University. During that time he has completed an undergraduate research project in the group of Prof. Gil Markovich in the department of chemical physics, in the school of chemistry. He is currently pursuing his PhD in a direct program in the same group.

Assaf studies the chemical and physical properties of inorganic nanoparticles. Specifically, he is interested in the property of chirality and physical effects associated with it. His research deals with various systems of inorganic nanocrystals interacting with chiral molecules, exhibiting a range of unique optical and magnetic phenomena associated with intrinsic or induced chirality. Recently, he has presented a new concept in nanoscale chemistry, involving control over lattice and shape chirality in intrinsically chiral inorganic materials. His results in the field have been published in magazines such as Angewandte Chemie, ACS nano and Nature Communications.

 Assaf has been awarded with the "Promising young researcher" award in the 14^th  international conference on chiroptical spectroscopy held at 2013. In 2014 he has been awarded with the Israel Chemical Society prize for an excellent graduate student. Assaf is a 2015 silver award recipient of the MRS Graduate Student Awards.

As of 2016 Assaf as been conducting his postdoctoral research in Princeton University under the supervention of Prof. Paul Alivisatos. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for conducting this research.