Panelists
Emad Al Ibrahim
Emad received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2017. He then joined KAUST and earned a master's degree in 2018 where he mostly worked on computational fluid dynamics. He then gained some practical experience through internships at Aramco and Lucid Motors. He is now pursuing a PhD working with Professor Farooq focusing on machine learning applications in spectroscopy and kinetics. He is a recipient of the Ibn Rushd postdoctoral fellowship award and plans to work with Professor Green at MIT.
Dr. Shashank Sakleshpur Nagaraja
Dr. Shashank Nagaraja is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Mani Sarathy's research group. He obtained his MS in Energy Engineering and Management from Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, and a PhD in Chemistry from NUI Galway in Ireland. He specializes in the domain of fuel chemistry and the application of artificial intelligence to fuel design. Dr. Shashank also manages projects related to sustainable energy technologies including green hydrogen production, e-fuels, and energy storage. He is also a member of The Combustion Institute, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, American Chemical Society, and Royal Society of Chemistry.
Dr. Ahmed Aljarro
Dr. Ahmed Al-Jarro holds a BEng and PhD in Electronics Engineering with High-Performance Computing from the University of Nottingham, UK. Since 2021, he has served as a Senior Scientist at the Aramco Research Center at KAUST (ARC-KAUST), Saudi Aramco. He has extensive experiences, and has previously held several Research and Development posts, working at various industrial sectors and academic research institutions. This includes the University of Nottingham, KAUST, University College London, and Fujitsu Research of Europe, London, UK. Dr. A-Jarro specializes in the emerging tech of IR4.0, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation. He is a co-inventor and co-author of several patents and publications, and a recipient of several awards. He is particularly inspired by building and executing state-of-the-art technologies, strategies, and roadmaps; giving rise to novel advances in intelligence and sustainability.
Dr. Noor Zaouri
Dr. Noor Zaouri is a senior research scientist specializing in Construction Chemical at Dow. With a Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral fellowship in Environmental Science and Engineering from KAUST, with focus in water treatment process, quality, regulations, and water safety.
Before joining Dow, Noor worked in SaudiVax and gained experience in the biopharma industry, where they worked in quality assurance, setting the industry standards.
Currently, as a research scientist at Dow Chemical, Noor supports and assists the local market and the Middle East region by providing innovative solutions and support the construction industry. Their expertise in Construction Chemical and their strong focus on sustainability and performance make them a valuable asset in their role.
Eng. Abdulhadi Qahtani
Eng. Abdulhadi Alqahtani is acting Innovation & Commercial Director at Al-Safwa Cement Company (ASCC). He is dedicated to spearheading ASCC's innovation initiatives throughout the organization, aiming to amplify its environmental sustainability efforts and expand its green footprint.
Before assuming his current position, he held a significant role in the water sector with a primary focus on waste management reduction. During this time, Eng. Alqahtani achieved notable success by overseeing the commissioning of several waste optimization initiatives.
Dr. Salim Duhami
Salem holds a bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from King Saud University. Salem has over 30 years of experience in different Technical, Operations and Management positions. The majority of his carrier was spent in Ethylene plant. Since 2013, Salem is providing global process technical support to SABIC Crackers and leading network of experts by which many Technical Best Practices were developed. Salem has authored many of these Best Practices. In Addition, since 2020, Salem is leading and coordinating SABIC Chemicals Carbon Neutrality roadmap development including working on specific Decarbonization projects, like H2 combustion, post combustion CCS and e-furnace.
Malik Aqel
Malik Aqel, Chief Phosphate Technology Specialist, with Maaden Phosphate Business Unit. 26 years in the phosphate and Fertilizer Industry, with global Industry leaders like; Norsk Hydro (Yara), Kemira Grow How, Sweedy Chemical Industries, SABIC, Qatar Petroleum Industries, Thyssenkrupp (Udhe), Manaseer and, today, with Maaden. Multiple Patents in Phosphate technologies, Specialty Fertilizers, Cabon Capturing and Phosphogypsum Waste Recycle.
Prof. Minhyeok Lee
Minhyeok Lee received bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from The University of Tokyo in 2011 and 2018, respectively. He was appointed as an assistant professor at The University of Tokyo in 2019, where he currently serves as a lecturer. He is a recipient of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) Young Engineers Award in 2022 and the Best Paper Award of the Combustion Society of Japan in 2023. Professor Lee’s research interests include energy conversion processes mainly based on combustion in both fundamental and practical aspects. He is currently collaborating with Japanese heavy industry, steel, and industrial furnace companies toward decarbonization in the combustion process.
Dr. Tamour Javed
Tamour is part of Saudi Aramco’s Transport Technologies R&D team located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He joined Aramco after completing his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. During his Ph.D., Tamour commissioned two shock tube facilities, both facilities are widely used for research in the field of combustion chemistry. His research on ignition kinetics of gasoline and surrogate fuels is highly cited. Tamour also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Automotive Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Tamour is involved in various R&D roles related to development of specifications and formulations for synthetic fuels, advancing sustainable transport technological solutions, assessment of technology economics, development of new business value chains, and transport and climate policy analysis. Tamour led establishment of Aramco’s R&D program on eFuels, he is also leading a project related to establishment of a demonstration plant for utilization of green H2 for eFuels production in Saudi Arabia.
Prof. James Turner
Dr James Turner is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at KAUST. He has 36 years of experience in the field of internal combustion engines, and is a specialist in the field of spark-ignition combustion, pressure charging, alcohol fuels, and engine concepts.
In addition to his specializations, he is interested in renewable energy and its application to the transport sector, with particular emphasis on the use of and possibilities afforded by alcohol fuels and hydrogen.
He originally had a career in industry, spending over 21 years working at Lotus Engineering. He also worked at Norton Motorcycles, Cosworth, and Jaguar Land Rover. After this, and before moving to KAUST, he was Professor of Engines and Energy Systems at the University of Bath in the UK.
Dr. Awad Alquaity
Awad Alquaity is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM). He holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from KFUPM (2011) and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from KAUST (2016), where he was part of the Clean Combustion Research Center. At KAUST, his research focused primarily on developing and using sensitive laser sensors and mass spectrometers to investigate the combustion chemistry of fuels in different fundamental combustion reactors. Dr. Alquaity worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Combustion Technology at RWTH Aachen University in Germany before joining KFUPM in September 2019. At Aachen University, he performed simulations and experiments to investigate the combustion chemistry of novel sustainable fuels as part of a larger effort to identify future fuels for the German market. He has co-authored more than 20 international journal publications, 2 book chapters and was granted a US patent for his work on sensitive laser sensor development. He works in the areas of combustion, heat transfer, spectroscopy, and multiphase flow.
Moderators
Prof. Hong Im
Hong G. Im received his B.S. and M.S. in from Seoul National University, and Ph.D. from Princeton University. After postdoctoral researcher appointments at the Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford University, and at the Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National Laboratories, he held assistant/associate/full professor positions at the University of Michigan. He joined KAUST in 2013 as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, and has been inducted as an International Member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea, a Fellow of the Combustion Institute and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He has also served as an Associate Editor for the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, and currently on the Editorial Board for Energy and AI. Professor Im’s research and teaching interests are primarily fundamental and practical aspects of combustion and power generation devices using high-fidelity computational modeling. Current research activities include direct numerical simulation of turbulent combustion at extreme conditions, large eddy simulations of turbulent flames at high pressure, combustion of hydrogen and e-fuels, spray and combustion modeling in advanced internal combustion engines, advanced models for pollutant formation, and plasma-assisted combustion, and cryogenic carbon capture.
Prof. Bassam Dally
Bassam Dally is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a member of the Clean Combustion Research Center at KAUST.
Over the last 30 years, Prof. Dally has contributed seminal works on a variety of research topics under the broad field of Thermo-Fluids. His major contributions are in turbulent reacting flows, MILD combustion, soot in flames, plasma propulsion, hybrid of concentrated solar thermal and combustion, and applied laser diagnostics. He has attracted millions of dollars for his research and has published more than 170 papers in leading scientific journals. He won many awards over the years, including ‘Energy Professional of the Year in South Australia’, and recently was awarded a Fellowship of the Combustion Institute.
Prof. Paul Hellier
Paul Hellier is Professor of Sustainable Energy Engineering at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London. Following completion of his PhD at UCL in 2013, he was awarded an EPSRC Research Fellowship for Design of advanced biofuels through optimisation of fuel molecular structure (EP/M007960/1), and led the UCL contribution to the development of Ultra Efficient Engines and Fuels (£3m EP/M009424/1). He collaborates across industry and academia in the development of sustainable fuels with organisations involved in fuels production, emissions control and assessment of health impacts.
Paul’s research focuses on the development of renewable fuels, both bio-derived and synthetic, and aims to exploit understanding of fuel structural reactivity in practical combustion systems in order to: (i) produce renewable fuels requiring reduced processing and upgrading; (ii) improve energy efficiency during combustion in difficult to decarbonise transport sectors (e.g. heavy duty road transport); (iii) reduce the formation and emission of toxic pollutants harmful to human health and the environment.
He has published over 50 original research and invited review articles in leading fuels and combustion, and multidisciplinary, journals, and was awarded the 2015 Harold V Disney Prize for his paper on ‘The influence of biodiesel composition on compression ignition combustion and emissions' by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and “Outstanding Presentation Award for Young Researchers and Engineers" at the 2011 JSAE/SAE International Powertrains, Fuels & Lubricants Meeting, Kyoto, Japan.