Establishing KAUST as a Global Center of

ESTABLISHING KAUST AS A GLOBAL CENTER OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

University faculty are recognized for their outstanding contributions to scientific research

Since its founding in 2009, KAUST has been able to attract world-leading experts from across various disciplines. Supported by the university’s modern facilities and collaborative environment, these scientific leaders have helped establish KAUST’s reputation as a global research center of excellence and brought prestige to the Kingdom. In recent months, KAUST faculty have won several distinguished international awards for their research. Vice President for Research Donal Bradley, who received the Czochralski Award from the European Materials Research Society in 2019 (shown above), was inducted into the US National Academy of Inventors in 2020, the fifth KAUST faculty member to be so honored. After being elected fellow of the Royal Society in April 2020, Professor of Chemical Science and KAUST Solar Center Director Iain McCulloch was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Interdisciplinary Prize for his work on chemical molecular design and synthesis.

KAUST researchers are also receiving increased local and regional recognition for their work. KAUST Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering Peng Wang was recently awarded the prestigious 2020 Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water for his work on solar energy-driven processes of freshwater generation. Osman M. Bakr, Professor of Material Science and Engineering, recently won the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers in the field of material sciences, an award presented annually by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation.

Elsewhere, several KAUST professors have been recognized for their lasting contributions to scientific disciplines. KAUST Professor of Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering Tadeusz Patzek received the distinguished European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers’ Desiderius Erasmus Award for his outstanding and lasting achievements in the field of energy supply. KAUST President Dr. Tony Chan received the 2020 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession, a highly selective annual award given out since 1986.

Several KAUST faculty members have also been elected fellows of prestigious research societies in recognition of research impact and leadership in their fields. KAUST Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematics and Computational Science Peter Markowich was named a 2020 fellow to the European Academy of Sciences in recognition of his outstanding scholarship in the field of mathematical and numerical analysis of partial differential equations. KAUST Professor and Program Chair of Chemical Engineering and founding Director of the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center lngo Pinnau was named a 2020 fellow of the North American Membrane Society for his professional accomplishments in the field of membrane science.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY “In recognizing the work of Professor McCulloch, we are also recognizing the important contribution this incredible network of scientists makes to improving our lives every day.”

PROFESSOR INGO PINNAU Program Chair of Chemical Engineering and Founding Director of the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center

THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES THE INNOVATIVE WORK ON ENERGY-EFFICIENT SEPARATIONS WE HAVE DONE IN MY RESEARCH GROUP AT KAUST, AND WILL MOTIVATE US TO FURTHER DEVOTE OURSELVES TO HIGHIMPACT MEMBRANE RESEARCH THAT CAN BENEFIT THE KINGDOM AND THE WORLD.