Speakers

Dr. Adam Green joined the faculty at Georgetown in the fall of 2010. Adam's motivating interest is in human creative intelligence and especially in understanding how neural processes constitute our best ideas. Adam’s work focuses on reasoning that reveals meaningful connections between seemingly distant concepts, often in the form of analogies. Adam received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Dartmouth in 2007 and completed post-doctoral training at Yale in 2010.

Dr Adam P. Summers trained as a mathematician & engineer and switched to biology for a Ph.D. His lab at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories allows him to deploy cutting edge equipment like micro-CT, and SEM at the water’s edge. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers on new materials inspired by shark skeletons; methods of attachment based on clingfish; and the arms & armor of fishes. He is committed to public outreach and was the scientific consultant on Finding Nemo.

Ahmad is an assistant professor of Computer Engineering and Head of Technology Incubators at the Vice Presidency for Business and Innovation of Knowledge at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia. Ahmad is also the founder and CEO of tech startup company Zayer. Before joining KAUST in 2009, Ahmad was a system engineer with SABIC. During his time at KAUST, Ahmad published several papers in top journals and magazines and filed a US patent. As a student he was a summer intern at Texas A&E University (2011) and the University of Oxford (2010). Ahmad’s professional goal is to become a leader in academia, to push higher education development in Saudi Arabia, the region and the world. He also holds a BSc (Hons) ’05, from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.

Dr Aleksandar Radovanovic is a Senior Computational Scientist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Aleksandar is author and co-author of more than 100 publications published in popular, technical and peer-reviewed journals. He is also author of a supplementary textbook on computer networking. Aleksandar's interest is in Bioinformatics, Big Data and in quantum computing. Aleksandar holds a PhD in Bioinformatics, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

Ali Outa is a Mechanical Engineer in R&D, Robotics, Mechatronics, Product Design in Aramco. He has five years of experience in Oil & Gas particularly in Research & Development, Asset Integrity and Inspection. Primary focus is in Mechanical Product Design, Robotics, Rapid Prototyping and Intelligent Systems. Ali holds a master of science from KAUST.

Amal is a design thinker and a passionate professional in creating customer centric experiences. She guides established corporates and startups to create innovation & commercialization opportunities through customer focused creative solutions. Amal offers multiple workshops and lectures on Design Thinking following the Stanford D-School methodology and applying IDEO’s practical learning’s as she has experienced it in Stanford with an adaptation to the local market and a customized offering for the organization requirements and needs.

Throughout her career Amal gained a diversified range of experience in management and marketing related roles particularly in education and consultancy. Currently, Amal is part of the Entrepreneurship Center in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in a number of roles including the New Ventures Accelerator & Hikma IP Startup Accelerator & REVelate Corporate Innovation program. Amal is also an entrepreneur, who started her own businesses, She was part of a joint venture with a startup in Dubai focused on creating media and production services for clients like Starcom Dubai, Yahoo Dubai and many others. 

Dr. Anders Rostad is a Research Scientist in the Red Sea Research Center at KAUST. His research focuses on fish and zooplankton ecology using echosounders to study distribution and behavior of pelagic marine organisms. Click here to know more about him.

Dr Andrea Fratalocchi is an associate professor in electrical engineering at KAUST. His research interests focus in the use of disorder as a building block for a new technology, which can benefit from the billenary evolution of natural systems. His vision is to grab the hidden secrets of randomness to unveil novel fundamental processes and a new class of electromagnetic materials that can be assembled on large sizes with minimal costs.

Anika dived in the Red Sea for the first time in 1999 and she is still fascinated by its colorful world of coral reefs. Even after spending a year at the GBR in Australia, she always finds her way back to the Red Sea. Anika is a dive instructor who has been working in the region for over 15 years and she is active with Reef Check since 2012, introducing Reef Check participants to Red Sea reefs. In her other career she is an intensive care doctor and saves patients’ lives in the emergency room.

Dr Atif Shamim received his M.A.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in electrical engineering at Carleton University, Canada in 2004 and 2009 respectively. He was a NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Graduate scholar at Carleton University from 2007 till 2009 and  NSERC postdoctoral Fellow in 2009-2010 at Royal Military College Canada and KAUST. In August 2010, he joined the Electrical Engineering Program at KAUST, where he is currently an Associate Professor and principal investigator of IMPACT Lab.

Professor Shamim's research is focused on applications like personal area network, automotive radars, wearable and implantable wireless sensors, wireless powering and renewable energy.

Dr. Ayman Naguib is a Senior Director of Engineering at Qualcomm CR&D, where he is leading the indoor positioning and navigation research in Qualcomm’s CR&D. Dr. Naguib has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a MSc. in Statistics from Stanford University, and a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University. Dr. Naguib has over 125 US and EU patents granted, over 65 journal and conference publications and has won two IEEE best paper awards. He is an IEEE Fellow.

Basel Al-Naffouri, who hails from Saudi Arabia, graduated from MIT with B.S. and M.S degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He is currently a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Google.

Basel is a Company member at BATS Improv with over 17 years of experience studying, performing and teaching improvised acting. He currently performs with BATS Improv and Secret Improv Society. He has lead workouts with KAUST, BATS Improv School, Google, Aswat, Dubai Improv Festival, and Laban in Beirut, Lebanon.

Dr. Bassam bin Ahmed Ghulman is General manager of Haramain High Speed Rail Project.

Doctor of Umm Al Qura University College of Engineering, he holds the position of Professor of construction, contract management and project engineering. He is vice president of the Council of Saudi Council of Engineers management.

Benjamin Cook joined Texas Instruments directly out of school as a member of Kilby Labs with an expertise in additive fabrication, materials development, and electromagnetics.  He currently champions the Printed Electronics Foundational Technology at TI with a focus on integrating additive fabrication into the semiconductor environment.  He has also helped lead the atomic and molecular physics work as part of the Nanotechnology team within Kilby Labs.

Boon S. Ooi is a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at KAUST. His research includes the study of high-speed optoelectronics materials and devices, optical wireless communications and sensors. He is serving on the editorial board of the Optics Express and IEEE Photonics Journal. He is an elected Fellow of the United States National Academy of Inventors, and a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, and InstP.

Brian James works at KAUST Health, Safety and Environment. He has been bird watching for the past 30 years. He worked as a teacher in Tanzania and soon started to take a keen interest in identifying the birds there. Since then he has watched birds throughout the world and has a life list of around 5200 species.

Brian came to KAUST when it first opened and worked as a teacher in the Primary School until 2016 when he retired. He is now working for the HSE department as the Biodiversity Coordinator.

His blog  reports on the birds seen at KAUST, He regularly organises Guided Bird Walks for community members and visitors. He has travelled widely within Saudi Arabia watching birds and recorded almost 400 species within the country.

Brian is a Research Scientist with Saudi Aramco, where he's worked since 2012. He is working on the Intelligent Systems team, which has graduated four robotics-related projects since being formed in 2012. Brian has a BSc ‘10 in Biology, during which he conducted research on an EMG-controlled upper-body, robotic exoskeleton. He also has a MSc, '11, from KAUST in Chemical and Biological Engineering. He has been granted 7 patents by the USPTO and is the author of 4 journal articles in addition to receiving multiple awards for his work on the Intelligent Systems team in Aramco.

Professor Carlos M. Duarte holds the Tarek Ahmed JuffaliChair in Marine Biology with the Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) at KAUST. Duarte received his Ph.D. from McGill University, Canada, in 1987. His research focuses on understanding the effects of global change, including climate change as well as other global-scale impacts of human activity, in marine ecosystems, which he has studied across the world. Duarte has conducted over 15 polar expeditions in Antarctica and the Arctic.
 

Professor Santamarina explores the scientific foundations of geomaterial behavior and subsurface processes using particle-level and pore-scale experiments, combined with numerical methods and high-resolution process monitoring systems. This conceptual and experimental framework is advancing the study of phenomena and the development of solutions in energy geotechnology with contributions to: resource recovery (petroleum, methane hydrates), energy geo-storage, efficiency and conservation.

Chris Newns started learning about ceramics while at university in the UK training to be a teacher. He learned how to throw pots and to build ceramic ware by hand – making pinch pots, coil pots and slab ware.

 Since those early days, he has travelled around the world as a teacher and managed to practice his craft. The country which had the most influence on his ceramic style was Japan and its fascinatingly diverse style of pottery – distorting thrown ware on the wheel, adding bubbly glazes and generally breaking all the rules he had learned in the UK!

Chris has worked with young children and adults and he is looking forward very much to sharing his skills with a group of students in WEP 2017.      

Christopher Fabian is a technologist and innovator who co-leads UNICEF’s Innovation Unit. Fabian works on finding solutions to big problems that face humanity, particularly children. Since 2007 he has held the title of Senior Advisor on Innovation to the Executive Director at UNICEF and Co-founder and Co-lead of the UNICEF Innovation Unit. He is best known for his work on tools for children and communities in low-infrastructure environments.T

he UNICEF Innovation Unit helped build the largest mobile health system in the world in Nigeria (reporting more than 42M births by SMS) as well as U-Report, which enables over 2.6 million young people to be connected to decision makers via SMS and social media.  They have used cell data to predict the spread of Ebola, smartphones to register children after a disaster, and tablet-based games to teach kids in Sudan.

Before UNICEF, Christopher founded and exited tech startups in Africa and the Middle East. He continues to advise startups, entrepreneurs, and funds on emerging business models and on how to make new things succeed despite the noise of voices saying they are impossible.

Cindy Van Dover is a deep-sea ecologist and explorer, submarine pilot and author. Her studies have taken her to the seafloor in all regions of the world ocean, to depths in excess of 4000 m. Van Dover likes to work on the frontier of deep-sea science and thrives on using new technologies as they come on line to access the deep sea. She now spends much of her time thinking about ways to protect and preserve deep-sea ecosystems while enabling sustainable use of deep-sea resources. Dr. Van Dover’s current position is as a Distinguished Professor at Duke University.

Previously developing games at his own company, Ciro joined Unity as Tech Evangelist for the EMEA region. His role involves travelling far and wide to spread the word about Unity, showcasing new features and advocating good development practices, although you’ll also hear a lot about game design for which he has a soft spot. He also has a passion for education and teaching, and is a restless advocate for game jams as a learning opportunity.

Unity Technologies is the creator of a flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich interactive 2D, 3D, VR and AR experiences. Unity's powerful graphics engine and full-featured editor serve as the foundation to develop beautiful games or apps and easily bring them to multiple platforms: mobile devices, home entertainment systems, personal computers, and embedded systems. Unity Technologies serves over 5.5 million registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists around the globe. 

David Dureisseix entered the Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan (ENS Cachan, France) in 1988, and received the Agregation in Mechanics in 1991. Its research activities began in the Mechanics and Technology Laboratory. He defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1997, and became Assistant Professor at ENS Cachan. After being Professor University Montpellier 2 in the Mechanics and Civil Engineering Laboratory, he took a Professor position at INSA Lyon, France, as head of the Contact and Structure Mechanics laboratory from 2011 to 2015. Apart from his research activities in computational mechanics, high performance computing, multiscale and multiphysics problems, nonsmooth mechanics and biomechanics, he is also member of national origami associations and is more recently involved in computational origami.

Professor Keyes is the director of the Extreme Computing Research Center at KAUST. He earned a BSE in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences from Princeton University in 1978 and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1984. Prof Keyes works at the interface between parallel computing and the numerical analysis of partial differential equations. Before joining KAUST as a founding dean in 2009, he led DOE scalable solver software projects and taught at Columbia University and Yale.

Dr. David Paredes teaches courses in creativity, innovation and change at Purdue University and Drexel University and presented at WEP in 2015. He has also worked with leaders from Fortune 500 companies as a consultant for KPMG on change management. He received his Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Learning Technologies from Drexel University and has an undergraduate degree in philosophy, as well as a graduate degree in instructional design.

After graduating from KAUST in 2013 with a MSc in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Dinorath was awarded an Irish Research Council scholarship to carry out her PhD studies. She joined the Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology Research Group in the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering at Trinity College Dublin. During her PhD studies she has explored the use of fiber reinforced hydrogels, the effect of topography and biochemical cues on adult mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, and extracellular matrix components to recreate the tissue-specific microenvironments that make up the complex ligament-bone attachment. Dinorath is hoping to finish her PhD by next year and continue her career in the tissue engineering field.

Dirk Ahlborn is the Founder and CEO of Jumpstarter Inc. that operateswww.JumpStartFund.com. This website is a web portal, that believes in creating smarter and more successful companies by applying crowd sourcing from the conception of an idea all the way through funding.

He is also the CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc., another one of JumpStartFund's well known undertakings to make the Hyperloop become reality by using crowd collaboration.

Dirk is a serial entrepreneur with experience in almost every element of business: management, product design, product development & manufacturing, production facility design & set up, production cost control, marketing, product distribution, customer service and sales.

Before co-funding Jumpstarter, he was at the Girvan Institute of Technology, an incubator-accelerator for early-stage high-tech companies. Beginning in 2009 he was instrumental in the development of several start up companies there, notable Advanced Turbine Designs Inc., a developer of natural-gas fueled gas turbine generators for combined heat and power. In the course of his multi-faceted activities at Girvan, he also managed mobile and web application developments as well as search engine optimization and online marketing.

 Prior to 2009, his activities were centered in Germany and Italy. Dirk began his professional career in 1996 as a broker and investment specialist at Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG, one of Germany's largest banks.

 In 1999, he founded Rika Italia, the distributor for Europe's leading manufacturer of energy-conserving pellet and wood-burning stoves. In 2001, Dirk founded Diva Srl, manufacturer importer and seller of residential heating and cooking appliances.

Edward C. Stone is an internationally known physicist who has served as project scientist for the Voyager program from 1972 to the present. As a graduate student at the University Chicago, he was inspired to enter the fields of planetary science and space exploration by the launch of Sputnik in 1957.

Stone was born in Knoxville, Iowa, on January 23, 1936. After receiving his undergraduate education at Iowa's Burlington Junior College, Stone attended the University of Chicago where he earned his mater's degree and Ph.D. in physics. He then joined the staff of Caltech as a researcher, and became a full faculty member in 1967. In 1972, he became the Voyager project scientist.

Since the launch of two Voyager spacecraft in 1977, Stone has coordinated the efforts of 11 teams of scientists in their investigations of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. He also became nationally known as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) public spokesman during the planetary flybys, explaining the Voyager's scientific discoveries to the public. Highlights of his decade of leadership as the Direction of JPL include Galileo's five-year orbital mission to Jupiter, the launch of Cassini to Saturn, the launch of Mars Global Surveyor and a new generation of Earth science satellites such as TOPEX/Poseidon and SeaWinds, and the successful Mars Pathfinder landing in 1997. Stone retired from JPL directorship in April of 2001 and resumed teaching and doing research at Caltech.

In the late 1980s through the 2009, Stone served as vice chairman and chairman of the Board of Directors of the California Association for Research in Astronomy, which has been responsible for building and operating the W.M. Keck Observatory with its two ten-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. He is also the Executive Director of the TMT International Observatory.

In addition to becoming a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1984, Stone has been recognized with numerous awards, among them the NASA Distinguished Service Medal of Science.

Eric Warrant is a professor in functional zoology and a senior scientist in the Vision Group at the Department of Biology, Lund University. His research ​​focus involves studying vision and brain functions in nocturnal insects and deep sea creatures.

Entrepreneur, trend-spotter, reputed public speaker. Facililator, strategic governance workshops on future trends and industry disruption.
Estelle Métayer is an expert and thought leader in Competitive and Strategic Intelligence. Her passion lies in deciphering how managers, CEOs, and board members build and improve their strategic planning and competitive intelligence capabilities, especially with regard to avoiding strategic blindspots. Her best work focus on companies that need to drastically change the way they do business or grow aggressively.
Estelle is a noted public speaker at numerous international conferences, including a presentation at Davos in 2012, and facilitates strategic workshops around the world. She contributes to events she speaks at through social media postings to more than 100,000 followers (17,000 on Twitter, 10,000 on Pinterest, over 60,000 on Flipboard).
Estelle is an adjunct professor at McGill University and a guest lecturer at IMD (Switzerland), and past joint programs with MIT, the IMB (India) and INSEAD. Faculty, Institute of Corporate Directors (Canada). She is the author or co-author of leading-edge articles on social media intelligence, strategy and leadership with Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and McKinsey Quarterly.
Estelle was formerly a consultant at the international Strategic Consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where she gained first-hand practical consulting experience in aerospace, consumer goods, and financial services. She then founded and was president of a leading training organization for executives and analysts in Strategic Intelligence, for which she received in 2000 the Arista Sunlife Award for "Entrepreneur of the Year." She sold her company in 2004.

Fadl Abdel Latif joined Aramco's R&D Center in 2012 where he develops robotic systems for Oil & Gas applications. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Mechatronics Engineering with distinction from University of Jordan in 2009. He completed his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering with distinction from KAUST in 2011. His research focus areas include robotics, automation, systems modeling and control and received many awards including the IFIA Industrial Glory Medal and KAUST Provost Award.

Rob Joseph is the Business Manager of KAUST’s Engineering and Project Management Department. Before coming to KAUST in 2014, Rob had a long career with Parsons, an American engineering company, and several other large engineering companies, working on infrastructure projects valued in the billions of dollars throughout the United States and the Middle East.

Rob has been conducting seminars in time and project management for over 30 years, beginning in the days of the first Apple.

Dr. Binzagr holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a Masters Degree in International Management, from Thunderbird, and a Ph.D. in Management with a minor in Organizational Development, from New Mexico State University. His Ph.D. Thesis focused on transformation and pro-active change.

 Dr. Binzagr is a fourth generation member of the Binzagr family business, which started as a trading company in the Arabian Peninsula more than one hundred and thirty years ago. He serves his family business in various capacities; he is the Deputy Chairman of Rubaiyat Group and Deputy President of ASMOB (Abdullah and Saeid Mohammed Obeid Binzagr Company). He is also a Board Member of Binzagr Unilever, Binzagr Co-Ro Ltd, and Avon Beauty Arabia. In addition, Dr. Binzagr is currently overseeing various efforts and initiatives for strategic human development and capacity building within the Binzagr Group. 

Since earning his Ph.D. in 1997, Dr. Binzagr has expanded his interests from organizational development to also include the theory and practice of human, community and holistic regional development.  To this end, he established Wisaal in 2007 to fulfill a life long passion towards imbedding his homeland and the global community with the values of truth, beauty, and meaning: bringing together threads of social volunteering, anthropological curiosity, and an identity deeply connected to his family’s merchant roots.

His work has spanned a range of dynamic and enriching roles including positions on the Shura Council, multiple boards of family business groups, and as a volunteer working with groundbreaking institutions such as Effat University and The Governor of AlMadinah Think Tank Group set up to advise on regional development in the Madinah Region.

Gilles Lubineau is professor of mechanical engineering at KAUST. He assumed his duties in July 2009 and has set up the Composite and Heterogeneous Materials Analysis and Simulation Laboratory (COHMAS), an integrated laboratory for controlled composite science from the process to the characterization, modeling, simulation and the validation.

As Head of the Entrepreneurship Center in KAUST since May 2014, Gordon has grown the activities of the center including the development of Teaching & Learning programs, startup accelerators such as the HIKMA IP-based and the REVelate corporate innovation program.

Prior to Saudi Arabia, he was the Associate Vice President of Arizona State University’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group (EIG) and Principal Investigator of the Center of Excellence in Technology Transfer, which was funded by the US department of defense, and an Assistant Professor of Practice. During his time in ASU, his group was ranked in the top 10 in the US for university incubators according to the UBI Global Index. While in ASU he developed several new innovation initiatives including the Furnace Technology Transfer Accelerator, which won the U.S. award for Most Promising Technology Based Economic Development in 2013. Previously Gordon was Deputy CEO of the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship in Ireland where he developed new programs such as the Business Innovation Program (accredited) in 2011 and was the founder of the Propeller startup accelerator in 2010. 

Dr. Greg Wickham is the Facilities and Systems Team Leader in the Visualization Core Lab at KAUST. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Deakin University, Australia in 1997, and joined KAUST in 2009. He has extensive professional experience in Network Management, High Performance Networking, Computer Systems Administration and Visualisation Technologies. In addition to his professional achievements he has a long history with electronics and microcontrollers, embedded systems and Linux.

Hassane Trigui is a Research Engineer working in Saudi Aramco R&D Center at KAUST since 2012. He is leading the Intelligent Systems team; designing cutting-edge, business driven robotics solutions. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Control and Instrumentation from KFUPM and Master’s in Electrical Engineering from KAUST. His research focuses on robotics, control, circuit design, and embedded programming. He has been rewarded with the CEO Excellence Recognition Award twice during his career in Saudi Aramco.

Details coming soon.

His Excellency Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi, born in 1935, was the Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources from 1995 to 2016

He joined Saudi Aramco in 1947. Under the training programs of Aramco, he studied at International College, Beirut and the American University of Beirut, before going to Lehigh University in the United States. He obtained a bachelor of science in geology in 1962. He later earned his masters of science in hydrology and economic geology at Stanford University.

After graduation, Naimi rejoined Aramco in 1957. He became the supervisor for the Abqaiq production department in 1969. He was promoted to assistant director and then director of production in the Northern Borders Region (1972–1975). He became vice-president of production affairs in 1975. He was appointed vice president of petroleum affairs in 1978. Al Naimi was elected a member of board of directors in 1980 and was promoted to the newly created position of executive vice-president of oil and gas affairs in 1981. He was named president of Saudi Aramco in 1983, being the first Saudi to hold that position.

His Excellency Ali Al Naimi is the Chairman of the KAUST Board of Trustees.

His Excellency Osama Al-Bar has been Mayor of Mecca since 1997. He has a PhD in environmental physics from Nottingham and a master’s degree in meteorology, as well as a bachelor of science degree from the College of Science, King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. He was earlier Dean of the Institute of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for Hajj Research and Director General Designate of Hajj Research Center, UMAU. He is Vice President of the Hajj Media Council and sits on the Higher Board of Mecca Development, the Hajj Central Committee, and the Execution Committee of the Higher Board of Mecca Development.

Ian Mcleod  is Co-Founder and director of Cinematic Science, a production company that specializes in creating inspiring science-based media content and training scientists & students in visual science communication. Also, he is a senior Research Scientist and Communications Manager in James Cook University (JCU), Australia. He has also produced videos on almost every continent. Ian is passionate about empowering others and gives workshops about careers in science, video production and science communication.

Dr Ibrahim Hoteit is Associate Professor, Earth Science and Engineering at KAUST. His research focuses on the effective use and integration of dynamical models and observations to simulate, study and predict earth fluid systems. This involves developing and implementing numerical models and data inversion, assimilation, and uncertainty quantification techniques suitable for large scale applications. Current research projects include:

• Modeling, understanding and predicting the Red Sea physics and biology
• Predicting marine and weather extreme events (storm surge, flooding, tsunami)
• Reservoir history matching.

Jenna graduated from KAUST with a MS in 2012 after focusing her studies in Chemical and Biological Engineering. Her research in KAUST’s Catalysis Center was with Professor Jorg Eppinger. Jenna completed her undergraduate degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 2010. She has recently commenced a new role with Western Window Systems in Arizona as a Testing Engineer, after three years with Heliae as a Development Engineer.

Jenny is a marine biologist and has been giving Reef Check courses in the Red Sea since 2001. She is also a Reef Check instructor trainer, teaching other scientists and local communities how to become conservation mentors. Jenny is dedicated to bringing important ecological issues to the attention of the public which is also her current profession in a Zoo nearby Frankfurt, Germany. She is a passionate diver with 25 years of underwater experience and proud mother of a 6-year old snorkeling boy.

Jon Rawlinson is a filmmaker and producer with 15 years of experience producing television, video and media content. He has a passion for using the latest technological innovations to tell unique and compelling stories. Jon has produced more than 70 videos for clients around the world and is currently in development of a Virtual Reality series for a leading global network. Jon is a co-founder and CEO of Cinematic Science, a production company that specializes in producing science-based media content.

Dr. Juan D. Rogers is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Research Value Mapping Program at the School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology. He teaches courses on the logic of policy inquiry, qualitative and quantitative methods, information management and policy, science and technology policy, and bureaucracy and policy implementation. His current research interests include modeling the R&D process, assessment of R&D impacts, especially in the formation of scientific and technical human capital, technology transfer, R&D policy and evaluation, the interaction of social and technical factors in the development of information technology, contextual factors of scientific and technical creativity, and information technology policy.

He has been consultant on science, technology and innovation policy to the Ministry of Science of Technology of Argentina (MINCyT), the Corporation for Industrial Development of Chile (CORFO), the National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina (INTA), the School of Engineering of the Universidad de los Andes of Colombia, the King Abdul Assiz City of Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia (KACST), the National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research in the USA (NCDDR), and the World Bank.

Recent publications include: “Research Centers as Agents of Change in the Contemporary Academic Landscape: Their Role and Impact in HBCU, EPSCoR and Majority Universities,”Research Evaluation, 2012; “Meanings and Policy Implications of ‘Transformative Research’: Frontiers, Hot Science, Evolution and Investment Risk,”Minerva, 2012; “Engaging Organizations for Knowledge Translation: Comparative Cases in Knowledge Value Mapping,”Implementation Science, 2011; “Research Creativity: An Exploration of Pathbreaking Science,”  2009.

Kathy received her Ph.D. in 1984 from The University of California at Berkeley. Her interests in Old World prehistory, palaeoanthropology, archaeological site formation, zooarchaeology, lithic technology, and primate studies have led her to conduct fieldwork in Africa, Asia and Europe, as well as laboratory research in the United States. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004, and received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award from Indiana University in 1997.

Dr. Khalid AlBahily is the director of SABIC corporate R & D and Advanced Catalysis department at KAUST. Dr. AlBahily received his B.Sc. degree in chemistry from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia in 1998, M.Sc. degree in organometallics chemistry from Texas A & M university, college station, United States in 2004 and a PhD in chemistry from University of Ottawa. Dr. AlBahily was awarded the Pierre Laberge Prize by university of Ottawa for the best PhD thesis in Science and was also the winner of IUPAC prize for outstanding academic achievements. Dr. AlBahily joined SABIC in 1998 and has published more than 20 papers in high quality journals such as JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Society Reviews and organometallics. Dr Albahily has authored more than 25 patents during his career at SABIC.

Dr Laurence Hapiot is a Research Fellow in Archaeology and Cultural outreach Consultant at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She is developing archaeological sciences projects by making use of KAUST experimental capabilities and expertise towards advancing archaeometry and knowledge of the Kingdom’s cultural heritage.
 
Dr Hapiot earned a PhD degree in Archaeology from the University Paris 1 (Pantheon-Sorbonne, France). She specialized in physical anthropology, and more precisely on the reconstruction of food ways, activities and health status of past civilizations through the study of dental remains, paleopathology and stable isotopes analysis. Dr Hapiot’s work focuses also on the study of funerary practices. She participated to several excavations in France and in Greece and from 2003 to 2013 she was in charge of the excavations of the Ottoman period necropolis in Argos (Greece).
 
Dr Hapiot is currently involved in the archaeological mission in Khuraybah (Al-Ula, KSA). She joined the team from King Saud University as an archaeo-anthropologist to explore the necropolis.
 
In the framework of WEP, Dr Hapiot runs the “Discover Saudi Arabia” project, an annual series of events, involving community members and developing collaboration with Saudi cultural institutions.
 

Lisa Rowland is a San Francisco-based improviser and a member of BATS Improv, and Improv Playhouse of San Francisco. She is also a founding member of Awkward Dinner Party, and was voted Best Actor in the Bay Area in the SF Bay Guardian for 2012. In addition to performing, Lisa has been a teacher of improv for nearly ten years, teaching improv to students of all ages and experience levels. She coaches high school improv teams in the San Francisco Bay Area and is also is a trainer for improv-based workshops for professional teams. She has worked with organizations such as Google, Oracle, Stanford University and Genentech. She's been lucky enough to travel all over the country and the world doing improv, and is pleased to be coming back as a part of WEP 2017 at KAUST.

Luca Passone is a PhD student working in the Computational Earthquake Seismology group and the Chief Technology Officer of the KAUST spin off FalconViz.

Luke Reveruzzi is Creative Director at STACK EVENTS, delivering LEGO themed fan events in the Middle East and CCO of STACK Global that delivers content to LEGO Fans in China, India and Middle East.

Luke has developed over 45 physical and digital products, 2 cars, 13 businesses, 5 patents, created marketing campaigns for global companies and SXSW Accelerator winner.

Luke set up a Product & Automotive design studio straight from university. 'FK Created' was founded in 2007 and evolved quickly into a full service agency that offered a wide variety of services, but always with Human Centric Design process. Eventually becoming Make & See a Physical & Digital Creative house working with LEGO, Intel, Mizuno, Google and Samsung in creating unique engaging experiences. 

Alongside the Agency new products, services and investments seeded new businesses ranging from a China based sourcing company to a tech start that raised investment to create a new storytelling platform, working with Agatha Christie publishing & Tim Kring.

Marie-Laure Boulot is the Enrichment Office director at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She sets strategies, oversees program development and positions KAUST's enrichment programs in Saudi Arabia and in the international landscape. She graduated from Paris Dauphine University where she studied finances and marketing. Marie-Laure joined KAUST as a founding staff member in 2009. Starting with the inaugural 2010 Winter Enrichment Program, Marie-Laure has successfully spearheaded the development and expansion of the University's enrichment programs that expand the minds of not only students but also faculty, staff and community members and in-Kingdom guests.

Marios Mantzourogiannis started photography in 2009; he has participated in a number of photography exhibitions in Greece and he has also presented his work in different occasions here in KAUST. His interest in birds started in 2015 and since then he has photographed more than 100 species here in KAUST and he has also photographed birds in Greece, Kenya and Sri-Lanka.

He came to KAUST in 2013 and he is working in the Government Affairs & Security department.

He runs the website http://www.discovering-birds.com, where he presents his photos and his experiences as a bird photographer.

Mark Ziembicki is a lead researcher and communication manager on the State of the Tropics initiative, a project that brings together leading research institutions from across the world’s tropics to assess social, economic, and environmental issues in the region. His research is interdisciplinary with a focus on wildlife ecology and biodiversity conservation. Mark is also a passionate advocate for the communication and advancement of science, an accomplished photographer and a co-founder of Cinematic Science.

 Martin Fischer, born in 1962 in Celle/Germany studied physics and holds a Phd in geophysics. He worked for about 10 years in climate research in Germany and in Italy. In parallel Martin has worked on racing sail boat designs since the late 90's. He worked on numerous high level race programmes like offshore racing trimarans, the Volvo Ocean Race and inshore race boats. Since 2011 Martin is working full time on the development of race boats. In 2013 he got involved in the Americas Cup. He became the head of the appendage programme at Luna Rossa Challenge and since October 2015 he is the head of the design team of the French Challenger for the 35th Americas Cup Groupama Team France.

Mehmet Tütüncü is the chairman of Research Centre for Turkish and Arabic world in Netherlands. This centre researches the crossroads and sections between Turkish and Arabic world and especially the Ottoman empires Arab provinces. He is also a specialist of Netherlands and Ottoman Relations. And has worked extensively in the Natıonal archives for an exhibition and book 400 years Turkısh and Dutch relations.  

He is the editor of Turkish Islamic Inscriptions series of the research Centre. He works currently on Ottoman Arabia especially on a corpus of Ottoman Inscriptions in the Holy Cities of Mecca and Mediana.

Works on Ottoman Arabia

1. “Royal Ottoman Inscriptions on the Istanbul to Mecca Pilgrimage Roiute (Darb al-Hajj al-Shami)” Hajj Congress British Museum, 22-24 March 2012 Published in Hajj Collected Essays, edited by Venetia Porter and Liana Saif, London British Museum 2013, pp. 36-43
2. First Century of Ottoman Rule in Arabia INSCRIPTIONS AND BUILDING ACTIVITIES BY OTTOMAN SULTANS IN 10^th CENTURY ARABIA, 8^th International Symposium on Studies in History of Arabia Riyadh 16-19 April 2014 (In publication)
3. The Uppsala Mecca Painting: A New Source for the Cultural Topography and Historiography for Mecca Hajj Global Interactions through Pilgrimage Edited by Luitgard Mols & Marjo Buitelaar, Leiden 2015 pp. 137-162 Procedings Symposium Hajj: Global Interactions through Pilgrimage 28 and 29 November 2013
4. Inscriptions from The Hajj Route, in The Archaeology of the Syrian Hajj Route in the Medieval and Ottoman Periods Route, by Andrew Petersen, British Academy/ Oxbow, Oxford (May 2012)

Miyoko Shida is Dancer and Choreographer with Rigolo Swiss Nouveau Cirque. When performing with Rigolo, Miyoko’s artist name is Miyoko Shida Rigolo.
 
Since 1997, the Japanese artist Miyoko Shida lives in Paris as dancer and as choreographer and participates in many international project below.

Born in Fukuyama city in Japan, she discovered dance when she met deceased Emzaburou-Jun Kyoya (Tokyoza dance company in Japan) and in this company she reaches the position as solo dancer and assistant choreographer.  
 
Some projects of her artistic career are:

• 1999/2000, “Balance Tanz” for Rigolo Tanzentes Theater (Now, Rigolo Swiss Nouveau Cirque) by Maedir Rigolo (director of Rigolo Swiss Nouveau Cirque)
• 2000/2001,"Balance performance ... und es drehte sich", Miyoko Shida supported Maedir not only as as dancer, but also as choreographer.

In France, Miyoko Shida works with important directors such as Bartabas (Zingaro), Bob Wilson, Myriam Gourfink, Juju Alishina, but also focusses on her creations (solo / dup works) as dancer and choreographer.
In 2012 she was introduced into the art of Sanddorn Balance by Maedir Rigolo. Already in her first public performances she touches audiences and professionals and was awarded with several prizes (e.g.: Circus Art in Izhevsk, Russia, Russian State Circus) and this success keeps on accompanying Miyoko Shida Rigolo and Sanddorn Balance until today.

Dr Muna Khushaim is an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department of Taibah University, Saudi Arabia.  Dr Khushaim completed her PhD at KAUST in 2015 in material science and engineering.  During her research at KAUST, Dr Khushaim became exposed to many sophisticated analytical techniques and is an expert of atom probe tomography techniques in the Arab Gulf States region.  Dr Khushaim graduated with a Master’s Degree in Theoretical Nuclear Physics from King Abdul-Aziz University in 2007 and completed her undergraduate degree in 2002 in Science and Education from Saudi Arabia’s College of Education.

Shadow puppet master and Javanese traditional musicians from Museum Sonobudoyo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Museum Sonobudoyo is one of the oldest museums in Indonesia. The museum, which is located in the heart of Yogyakarta, a special region in Java, is a regional technical operational unit under the Provincial Cultural Office. It was initiated by the Java Institute foundation in 1919, and officially inaugurated in 1935 by the King of Yogyakarta, Sri Sultan Hamengku Bhuwono VIII. The museum exhibits more than 40,000 historical items collected from Java, Madura, Bali and Lombok islands.

One cultural heritage that has been preserved by the museum is a Javanese shadow puppetry, which is going to be shown during 2017 Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). 

Myraida Rivera, AIA is a licensed architect, civil engineer, project manager, and design consultant. Prior to co-founding  d.heritage2tech she worked in pharmaceutical, commercial, residential, and product design projects. At KAUST, she co-founded its Makerspace (currently ProtoLab) and recently instructed KAUST’s first FabAcademy. Myraida received an undergraduate degree in Environmental Design and graduate degrees in Architecture from the University of Puerto Rico and Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University.

Nick received his Ph.D. in 1982 from The University of California at Berkeley. His research interests include African prehistory, palaeolithic studies, the evolution of human intelligence, lithic technology, experimental archaeology, microscopic approaches to archaeology, zooarchaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and primate studies. He is currently involved in experimental investigations of stone tool-making and tool-using behaviors of modern African apes and of the manufacture and use of early Palaeolithic tools. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004.

Oliver created his first commercially successful game at the age of 14. Back then, commercially successful meant doubling the monthly allowance. Success was easier that way.

He studied Animation & Games at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt and finished his bachelor degree in 2011. Immediately afterwards he created his own development studio “Hammer Labs” and released his first game “Farm for your Life” in 2013.

He is currently working on a new console game called “Super Sky Arena” and he is the coding-co-founder of the German based Virtual Reality Arcade "Holocafé".

About Hammer Labs
Hammer Labs is a small game development studio founded by Oliver Eberlei in 2013, shortly after he has graduated from university. The company serves as an umbrella to unify all his creative projects and each game is created by different amazing creators he likes to work with. It’s a place of experimentation and creation which manifests in the wide spectrum of PC, Console and VR games. The name symbolizes the nature of developing games - science vs. craft.

Paul Bennett leads the Jeddah Through Time tour during WEP 2019. Paul is the Manager of Graduate Events and Recreation and his career includes managing sports, recreation and stadia facilities and events and sports marketing and advertising. His experience in Saudi Arabia and in the United Kingdom spans operations in private, non-profit and government sectors. Paul joined KAUST in 2008 from the Recreation Services Department of Saudi Aramco, in Dhahran. Upon arriving at KAUST, he played a key role in establishing the recreation facilities on campus, before joining Graduate Affairs in 2009.

Paul and his team manage over 600 events, programs and activities per year to serve the extracurricular needs of graduate students. In addition, they also organize a number of annual events for graduate students, such as during Orientation in August that includes the Orientation Expo. Paul’s team also organizes exhibitions and sports events during the year, as well as trips for graduate students. The office furthermore organizes events open not just designed for students, but where community members can participate as well, such as the annual Lunar New Year celebration and the University Badminton Championship. Since 2014, Paul and his team have organized well over 100 Thursday Night Live! music sessions held each week during the semester, in the Student Center.

Paul has been a resident of Saudi Arabia for just over 20 years and organized some of the first off-campus trips for KAUST community members back in 2008, which included trips to Jeddah and various parts of Saudi Arabia. Paul’s qualifications include a Master’s degree from Loughborough University in the UK, and his interests include scuba diving, music and travel.

Dr. Pedro M. F. J. Costa is the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory for Carbon Nanostructures and Assistant Professor at the Materials Science and Engineering Program of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). He lives in KAUST with his wife and three children.

Peter Rautek is a Research Scientist at the Visual Computing Center at KAUST. He is passionate for making things manifested in joint electronics projects and mobile apps like Epic (mobilesynergies.org), uberdice (uberdice.thomashollt.com), and Visual Experience, a KAUST seed funded and award winning startup focusing on virtual reality experiences. Peter founded, and is the acting president of, KAUST’s Maker Space SDG. He has co-authored and co-hosted several WEP courses in 2016 and 2017.

Peter H. Seeberger studied chemistry in Erlangen (Germany) and completed a PhD in biochemistry in Boulder (USA). After performing research at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Research in New York he built an independent research program at MIT where he was promoted to Firmenich Associate Professor of Chemistry with tenure. After six years as Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich he assumed positions as Director at the Max-Planck Institute in Potsdam and Professorships at the Free University of Berlin and at the University of Potsdam.

Professor Seeberger’s research has been documented in over 440 peer-reviewed journal articles, four books, more than 35 patents, and more than 800 invited lectures. This work was recognized with more than 25 international awards. He greatly supports the idea of open access publishing as the Editor-in-Chief of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry and serves on the editorial advisory boards of many other journals.

Peter Seeberger is a co-founder of the Tesfa-Ilg “Hope for Africa” Foundation. The research in the Seeberger laboratory has given rise to several companies in the USA and Germany.

Regina Saisi is a San Francisco-based actor and improviser.  She has taught at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, UC Santa Cruz and KAUST in Saudi Arabia and has performed internationally in Belgium, Holland, Italy, Finland, France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. She is guest artist at TAM HS, teaching and directing for over 20 years.

Regina is a pioneer in the development of long-form improv and is a founding member of the improvisational theatre companies True Fiction Magazine, Pulp Playhouse, Improv Playhouse of San Francisco. As current Company member of BATS Improv she has served as Dean of the BATS School and Artistic Director.

Dr. Glud is a professor at the Department of Biology and at the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (NordCEE) in Denmark.

Ryan Boekeloo is an aerospace engineer working at FalconViz where he designs, builds, and tests custom drones.

Sahejad Patel, a 2011 KAUST master’s degree graduate, works on SWIM-R, or Shallow Water Inspection and Monitoring Robot, in the Aramco lab on the KAUST campus.

Dr. Samar Alsaggaf is Vice Rector of Health Affairs and Acting Vice Rector of Educational Affairs at Princess Nourah University.

As the first female Anatomist in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Alsaggaf has made significant contributions to the field of Medical Education and Research. She has authored 38 medical publications, written several books and has led numerous government-funded scientific research projects. Her exceptional leadership qualities have earned her seats in countless scientific and social committees and advisory groups.

She is the former Dean of Students and Vice Dean of Medical College at King Abdulaziz University.

Dr. Alsaggaf holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery from King Abdul Aziz University (1988), a Master’s degree in Anatomy and Embryology (1993) and Doctorate of Philosophy in Anatomy and Embryology from King Saud University (1996). She also earned a Certificate of Medical Education from the University of Illinois (2009).

As a Physician, Dr. Alsaggaf gained a specialization in Anatomy, Embryology, and Histology with an expertise in the development of the Nervous System.

Prior to joining Princess Nourah University, Dr. Alsaggaf served as the Director of the Department of Medical and Health Science Programs at the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) to the United States in Washington, D.C. Her mentorship at SACM earned her the informal title “The Mother of Saudi Students” by the students themselves.

Dr. AlSaggaf is an enthusiastic advocate for women’s programs and medical curriculum development. She has an excellent track record managing grand projects and facilitating and bridging the gap between East and West.

Eng. Sami Iskandarani is Project Consultant for King Faisal Hospital mega extension project.

Silvia Acinas is a research scientist at Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography at the ICM (Institut de Ciències del Mar), CSIC in Barcelona.

Steph Davis started climbing 25 years ago as a college student in Maryland. She has gone on to climb some of the most difficult walls and mountains in the world, and has made a name for herself through free solo climbing, which is climbing without a rope. Ten years ago, she discovered a passion for skydiving, base jumping and wingsuit flying and she now combines her climbing skills with the ability to fly off mountains in a superhero suit with wings. Steph is considered one of the top climbers and base jumpers in the world.

Steph has written two books, maintains a blog, and runs her own climbing camps in Moab, Utah. She has developed a successful brand that has expanded into social media influencing and marketing.

ProfessorTadeusz (Tad) Patzek is Director of the Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center at KAUST since 2015. Until December 2014, he was the Lois K. and Richard D. Folger Leadership Professor and Chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin. He also held the Cockrell Family Regents Chair #11. Between 1990 and 2008, he was a Professor of Geoengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. 

His work includes mathematical, both analytic and numerical, modeling of earth systems with emphasis on multiphase fluid flow physics and rock mechanics; smart, process-based control of very large water floods in unconventional, low-permeability formations; and productivity and mechanics of hydrocarbon bearing shales. Between 2008 and 2014, he was the Lois K. and Richard D. Folger Leadership Professor and Chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin. For the last 7 years, Patzek has maintained a blog about the environment, ecology, energy, complexity and human activities with 350,000 unique readers.

Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been working for 16 years to create sculptures that move on their own in eerily lifelike ways. Each generation of his "Strandbeests" is subject to the forces of evolution, with successful forms moving forward into new designs. Jansen's vision and long-term commitment to his wooden menagerie is as fascinating to observe as the beasts themselves.

His newest creatures walk without assistance on the beaches of Holland, powered by wind, captured by gossamer wings that flap and pump air into old lemonade bottles that in turn power the creatures' many plastic spindly legs. The walking sculptures look alive as they move, each leg articulating in such a way that the body is steady and level. They even incorporate primitive logic gates that are used to reverse the machine's direction if it senses dangerous water or loose sand where it might get stuck.

Qin Tian, born in Hongan County, Hubei Province, graduated from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts.
He held his personal calligraphy and painting exhibition at Beijing798 Art Center and Beijing Pan Jia Yuan Community Art Centre in 2005. He won Third Class Prize at Red Eagle Cup, National Civil Servant Calligrapy and painting Contest in 2000 and was invited to participate at The Fifth West Lake Impression of modern Fine Works Auction in Zhejiang in July 2014.

Tim has improvised since 1988 with many San Francisco and international groups, including BATS Improv, True Fiction Magazine, Awkward Dinner Party, and with the acclaimed troupe 3 For All.

In 2009, he founded Improv Playhouse of San Francisco. Tim has also appeared in numerous plays in the San Francisco Bay Area, and received critical acclaim for his leading roles in the improvised feature films, Suckerfish and Security. With Stephen Kearin, Tim co-wrote, and originated the role of Dirk Manly in, An Evening with Dirk & Blaine.

Nationally, Tim has performed and taught improvisation at the American Conservatory Theatre, BATS Improv, Stanford University, and many other venues (Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Austin, Louisville, Atlanta, etc.). Internationally, he has performed and taught at numerous festivals and/or as an invited guest artist in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Beirut, Belgium, Berlin, Bucharest, Dubai, Hamburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Mallorca, Oslo, Paris, Saudi Arabia, Shanghai, Stockholm, and more.

Tim has consulted with numerous groups both nationally and internationally in their formation of improvisation groups and also the development of new improvisation formats.

Vasileios Roussis, recipient of the 2015 PSE – Bruker Award “in recognition of his outstanding contributions to chemistry, structure and function of marine natural products” obtained his PhD from the University of Iowa, USA and did postdoctoral work at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA and NCSR Demokritos. He joined the School of Pharmacy, University of Athens, in 1995 and he is currently the Director of the Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Chemistry of Natural Products.

Professor Wei Shyy is the Executive Vice-President and Provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is concurrently Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Prior to joining HKUST in August 2010, he was Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson Collegiate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Michigan. He was previously employed by the University of Florida and GE Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York. He earned his BS degree from Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan, and his MSE and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

He is the author or a co-author of five books and numerous journal and conference articles dealing with computational and modeling techniques involving fluid flow, biological and low Reynolds number aerodynamics, combustion and propulsion, and a broad range of topics related to aerial and space flight vehicles. 

Eng. Yasser Joharji is the CEO of Al-Nahdi Medical Company.  He holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. He has extensive experience spanning more than 20 years in the field of management. He joined Nahdi Medical Company in September 2014, as Chief Executive Officer. He had spent 20 years at Unilever, one of the largest multinational companies in the world, where he held several important positions. He worked as a General Manager at Unilever Saudi Arabia from 2010 to 2014. Prior to that, he served as the company’s General Manager of FMCG, personal care and household products, where his responsibilities focused on strategic planning in order to accelerate growth and the development of commercial potentials from 2003 to 2008. From 1998 to 2003, he served as a Brand Manager in, being responsible for a considerable growth in the percentage of Unilever’s sales. Before joining Unilever, he served as a Senior Brand Manager at Savola, one of the largest food companies in the Middle East, from 1993-1998. In addition to his eclectic career, he is also an advocate of public affairs. He is an active member of Kadijah hint Khuwaylid Centre, a group that supports women’s interests and issues. He is also a member of a Knowledge Group that supports family guidance, and many other important organizations in the social responsibility field.

Dr. Youssef Belmabkhout is Senior Research Scientist. His interests embrace research and development of materials and processes in different fields such as gas/liquid separation, gas storage, toxic gases removal, CO2 capture and sequestration. My research interests are extended in multidisciplinary complementary areas from chemistry, physical chemistry, physics to chemical engineering (applications). The ultimate objective is to develop tailored materials and their related processes for specific applications relevant to energy security and environmental sustainability.